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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



The Training of the 
Chosen People 



BY 

PROF. GEORGE E. HORR, D. D. 

Professor of Church History in *he 
Newton Theological Institution 



BIBLE STUDY PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Boston, Massachusetts 



3/5 



H* 



lUdNARY of CONGRESS. 

iwo GOPleS ritJCaivne 

SEP 21 iwa 

?OPY c«. '" 




Copyright, 1906, 1907, and 1908 

by the 

Bible Study Publishing Co., Boston 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 031663 



PREFACE. - 

The chapters that make up this volume were 
published on successive weeks, during 1907, in a 
number of weekly and daily papers. They were 
designed to interpret the Bible Study Union 
Course of Sunday School lessons on Old Testa- 
ment History. 

The purpose of this volume is to interpret the 
moral and spiritual significance of the history in 
the light of the providential training of the Chosen 
People for their mission to the race. 

The point of view is that of a student of history, 
who, on the one hand, does not believe that the 
conception of Jehovah and of His righteous law, 
against which Israel was always fighting as a 
spirited horse fights against a curb bit, was simply 
the product of the life and experience of Israel ; nor, 
on the other hand, that the history of Israel was 
uninfluenced by the processes which explain the 
evolution of other nations. 

In prosecuting these studies the impression has 
deepened, in the mind of the author, that the well- 
established results of modern critical investigations 
of the Scriptures do little to weaken the spiritual 
significance or authority of the narratives. Indeed, 
in many instances their effect is the reverse. 

Another conviction has taken solidity in writing 
this book, namely, that not only was there a divine 
Hi 



iv Preface 

element in the events which make up the history 
itself, but that the men who wrote the history were, 
in a large sense, divinely guided in their choice and 
setting of material. It would require omniscience 
to describe every factor and feature of the most 
insignificant event. It requires a high type of 
genius, such as we see in a Goethe or a Carlyle, to 
present the typical aspect of an ordinary happen- 
ing. The authors or editors of the Old Testament 
historical narratives write throughout from the 
point of view of Jehovah. They do not by any 
means tell us all that we would like to know, but 
whatever they tell us is typical of the significance 
of the epoch or character in the eye of Jehovah. 
They give us the perspective of God. That a vast 
literature, embracing the events of fifteen hundred 
years, should have been composed by many writers 
with faithfulness to this difficult plan is a unique 
fact, which suggests important inferences. 

GEORGE E. HORR. 
Newton Centre, Mass. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Chapter 

I. The Vision of Creation 

II. The Vision of Sin 

III. The Vision of Judgment 

IV. The Way of Faith . 
V. The Life of Faith 

VI. The Forces that Transform Character 

VII. Man's Plans and God's Purpose 

VIII. The Resources of God 

IX. The Mighty Deliverance 

X. Making a Nation 

XI. The Secret of Failure 

XII. The Discipline of Israel 

XIII. Review of Chapters I-XII 

XIV. The Discipline in Righteousness 
XV. The Triumphs of Faith 

XVI. The Winning of Canaan . 

XVII. The Hand of God in History 

XVIII. Overthrow and Redemption 

XIX. The New Epoch for Israel 

XX. A Success that Fails 

XXI. Saul and David 

XXII. The Career of David 

XXIII. The House of David 

XXIV. The Inheritance of Solomon 
XXV. The Folly of Solomon 

XXVI. Review of Chapters XIV-XXV 

XXVII. The Wrath of Man and God's Purpose 

XXVIII. The Folly of Moral Compromise 

XXIX. The Development of Tendencies 

XXX. The Clash of Forces . 

XXXI. The Peril of Prosperity 

XXXII. The Rod of Jehovah 

XXXIII. Trusting in Princes . 

XXXIV. Sin Bringeth Forth Death 
XXXV. The Hand of Jehovah 

XXXVI. The Word of the Lord 

XXXVIL The Capture of Jerusalem 

XXXVIII. The Fulfilment of Doom 

XXXIX. Review of Chapters XXVII-XXXVIII 
V 



Page 

1 

4 

7 

10 

13 

16 

20 

24 

28 

32 

36 

40 

43 

47 
50 
54 
57 
61 
65 
69 
73 
77 
80 
84 
87 
91 

94 
98 
103 
107 
111 
115 
119 
123 
127 
132 
136 
141 
146 



VI 



Table of Contents 



Chapter 

XL. Progressive Deterioration . 

XLI. The Evolution of Good 

XLII. The Transcendent Optimism 

XLIII. The Blessing to Mankind . 

XLIV. The Ideal of Service . 

XLV. God's Temporal Providence 

XL VI. Conscientious Devotion Rewarded 

XL VII. Human Ability Consecrated to God 

XL VIII. The Law of the Lord 

XLIX. The Insoluble Problem 

L. Judah's Loyalty to Jehovah 

LI. Weakness and Strength of Judaism 

LII. Review of Chapters XL-LI 



Page 
149 
153 
157 
16? 
165 
168 
172 
176 
179 
183 
187 
191 
194 



The Training of the Chosen People 

Old Testament History 



CHAPTER I. 

THE VISION OF CREATION. 

Gen. chs. 1, 2. 

A careful reader can hardly miss the spiritual sig- 
nificance of the Biblical narrative of the creation. 

The origin of the universe is traced back to God. 
It is the product of His volition. When our souls 
respond to the loveliness of the springtime, or are 
moved by the sublimity of the mountains or the ocean, 
or are hushed in awe by the majesty and splendor of 
the starry heavens, we are answering to the manifes- 
tations of the thought of God. The universe brings 
us into contact with God in the same way that a mech- 
anism, a picture, or a poem brings us into relation 
with the inventor, the artist or the poet, and inter- 
prets something of his personality. Or, to suggest 
a closer analogy, just as the child, whose life sprang 
from his father, and in whose veins and spirit his fa- 
ther's blood and temper pulsate, manifests and inter- 
prets his father, so creation reveals and interprets God. 
Wordsworth's immortal lines express the Christian 
feeling as to the created world : 

I have learned 
To look on nature, not as in the hour 
Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes 
The still, sad music of humanity. 

* * * * * 

And I have felt 
A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean and the living air, 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; 
A motion and a spirit that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
And rolls through all things. 

Our theories of the process of creation do not, in 
the least, affect the rich implications of this truth. 



2 Old Testament History 

We may conceive that the universe, including the 
higher forms of life, came into being by direct crea- 
tive acts, or that it is the result of a process of evolu- 
tion continued through ages. The method and pro- 
cess of creation are unimportant. The significant 
thing is that God did the act or is behind and within 
the process, as the hand is within the glove. The uni- 
verse, culminating in the life of man, manifests, just 
so far as the nature of the material permits, the 
thought and will and character of God. 

The narrative also clearly involves an affirmation 
of the inherent dignity and worth of men. Neither 
Sophocles, nor Shakespeare, nor Pascal in their noble 
and famous encomiums of man approach the majestic 
appreciation of the dignity of man uttered by the au- 
thor of this narrative when he declares that man was 
made "in the image of God." It is not possible to put 
a higher estimate on man than that. If some one 
says that we cannot define the great phrase with pre- 
cision, we reply that it is enough to know that man 
is so like God as to justify the description. Theolo- 
gians have differed greatly as to the extent in which 
man lost the divine image by his transgression. But 
is it not certain that, however defaced it may be by 
an evil heredity or by vicious choices, it is not wholly 
obliterated? There is that in man to which God can 
appeal; there is that in man which God supremely 
values; there is that in man which Christ came to 
redeem. 

And we are warranted in seeing in the creation of 
the world by God a pledge of the triumph of moral 
forces. The world as it came from His hands was 
"good." It reflected the divine character. It is still 
easy to discern goodness in creation. The evidences 
of it are all about us. But the world as we know it, 
especially the world of human life, is not wholly good. 
Evil exists. It is an insoluble problem, but it is not 
the controlling factor in the universe. 

St. Peter speaks of God as "a faithful Creator" 



Chapter i. The Vision of Creation 3 

(1 Pet. 4: 19). He sees that the creation of the world 
involves an obligation on the part of the Creator to 
make sure that good shall finally triumph in it. Origen, 
the early Christian father, asserted that there was "a 
gospel of creation." He meant that if the Creator pos- 
sesses the character of goodness that we attribute to 
Him, He could not create a world that would be per- 
manently hostile to His own nature and destructive of 
His own purposes because of the dominance of evil 
in it. Such an idea is contrary to the deepest instincts 
of the human soul. 

Therefore, no matter how much we may be tempted 
to pessimism and despondency, we may always be 
confident that good will finally vanquish evil, because 
the world was made by a good God. The creation of 
the world is a pledge of God's redemptive purpose 
for the world that He has made. The promise and 
triumph of righteousness are woven into the very 
structure of the universe. 



4 Old Testament History 

CHAPTER II. 
THE VISION OF SIN. 

Gen. 3 : 1—6 : 8. 

Our lesson this week brings before us a narrative 
that, more than any other passage in literature, fur- 
nishes the background of Christian thought. In sym- 
bolical language it portrays the entrance of moral evil 
into human life. Throughout, it is marked by singular 
clearness of spiritual insight. Two or three out-stand- 
ing truths demand special attention. 

One is that evil is not involved in the original en- 
dowment of human nature. God did not exclude man 
from the things that at the creation He pronounced 
"good." Sin enters the human soul from without, it 
is not there as an essential part of human nature. 
When man admits evil into the citadel of his heart, it 
is there as a foreign element hostile to his true and 
natural experience. He cannot perfectly fraternize 
with it, or be wholly at peace with it. 

And this statement is not vitiated by the fact that 
the soul's assimilation of evil has gone so far as to 
justify the stern language about the wickedness of 
the human heart used by the Biblical writers and the 
nobler pagan moralists. Still, man has not ceased to 
be man. If there is "a call of the wild" and "a call 
of the blood" there is a call of the image of God which 
we cannot escape. In the deepest sense the natural 
man is not the sinful man. When the prodigal son 
"came to himself," he returned to his father. Augus- 
tine uttered a universal conviction when he said, "Our 
heart is at unrest, until it find rest in Thee, O God." 
When Horace Bushnell described sin as "man's acting 
as he was not made to act," he gave a definition of sin 
that has hardly been surpassed. 

No one ever acted more consistently upon this view 
of human nature than Jesus Christ. He confidently 
appealed to the man within the man. He absolutely 
trusted the intuitions and promptings of man's better 



Chapter 2. The Vision of Sin 5 

self. The life to which He called men was the normal 
life for which they were made. He looked at sin as 
an enemy from which He would deliver men. 

The narrative also gives us a suggestion as to the 
nature of the law of God. It is restrictive that it may 
be protective. "Ye shall not eat . . . lest ye die." We 
are apt to look upon divine laws as so many hindrances 
to the enjoyment of the fullest and largest life; we 
put the law of God and the love of God into sharp 
contrast. There is no such opposition. The goodness 
of God is superlatively manifest in His law. The 
present writer will not soon forget an evening drive 
down a mountain side in the West Indies. We had 
been overtaken by the sudden coming of the tropical 
night, and the journey in the dark, along the edge of 
steep abysses, seemed full of peril, but we were assured 
when we thought of the strong iron rails that ran along 
the edge of the road that skirted the precipice. We 
regarded that parapet with gratitude. That was the 
feeling that moved the writer of the magnificent 
"Praise of the Law," known to us as the Hundred and 
Nineteenth Psalm. 

Great peace have they that love thy law; 
And they have no occasion of stumbling. 

***** 
Oh how love I thy law! 
It is my meditation all the day. 

The law of God, instead of being an arbitrary and 
harsh requirement to lessen human enjoyment or to 
dwarf human development, is a safeguard and guide 
to the richest and largest experience. It shows us, 
what the Sixteenth Psalm so beautifuly calls, "the 
path of life." The law of God is an evidence of God's 
love and care for man. 

The entrance for sin was prepared by a skilfully 
suggested misconception of the purpose of God's law. 
The tempter fastened attention upon the prohibition, 
and ignored the loving, protective aim. He construed 
the law as an arbitrary diminution of human power 



6 Old Testament History 

and blessedness, and it was simply man's lack of faith 
in the wisdom and goodness of God that opened the 
way for the first sin. In the light of this is it strange 
that the Gospel should make faith the condition of sal- 
vation ? 

Still further, this ancient record touches, as with 
the point of a needle, the gravest results of sin. One 
was personal, the other social. The most serious per- 
sonal result was not being shut out of the garden, 
or the necessity of labor, but the breaking of fellow- 
ship between God and man. After the sin there 
sweeps into the souls of the man and the woman the 
sense of alienation from God, of fear and shame. We 
make the secondary primary when we make salvation 
consist in anything less than fellowship with God. No 
reliefs from external penalties, no blessedness of out- 
ward condition can constitute salvation, if the grave 
result of sin is not done away with, and the sinner 
restored to loving sympathy with God. 

But the effects of sin are propagated in widening 
circles in the lives of others. The sin of the first par- 
ents registers itself in the crime of Cain. You can- 
not restrict and fence in evil. It perpetuates itself 
along every channel made by human contacts. The 
most sobering reflections come to mature men when 
they see the evil to which they yielded coming to new 
fruitage in their children. In all of Phillips Brooks' 
sermons there is no such tremendous passage as the 
paragraph in his Lenten Discourses in which he asks, 
What about the lives to which our misdeeds have giv- 
en a fatal direction, though we ourselves have turned 
to God? What about our guilt for their sin? The 
slightest reflection upon such questions throws a vivid 
light on the sinfulness of sin. 



Chapter 3. The Vision of Judgment 



CHAPTER III. 
THE VISION OF JUDGMENT. 

Gen. 6 : 9—11 : 9. 

Several traditions of the deluge come down to us 
from different sources, and, if we need to do so, we 
may use them to 
confirm our confi- 
dence in the Biblical 
narrative. The physi- 
cal aspects of the 
flood, of course, 
raise many interest- 
ing- questions, but its 
moral features are 
much more impor- 
tant. Three great 
truths especially de- 
mand our attention : 
the fruitage of sin, 
the new start of 
the race, and the 
new tutelage. 

Are the forces for righteousness that are symbol- 
ized in the declaration that man was made "in the 
image of God" sufficient to overcome the power of the 
sin which our first parents admitted into their hearts ? 
Antecedently, perhaps, we might say that they were. 
But as the Biblical narrative declares, the early his- 
tory of the race was a story of progressive deteriora- 
tion. "And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man 
was great in the earth, and that every imagination of 
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." 
In an exceptional man, like Noah, the inherent forces 
of goodness are strong enough to overcome bad ten- 
dencies, for a time; but, taking the race as a whole, 
the evil bent is overwhelming. And, as we shall see 
later, even Noah, the exceptional man, is not immune 




Babylonian Flood Tablet. 



8 Old Testament History 

from the common taint. The deluge was God's judg- 
ment upon the self -corruption of the race. It wit- 
nesses to the need of other forces than those involved 
in man's original endowment, if the race is to come 
into fellowship with God. 

The result of the deluge was that human life made 
a new start in the earth on the basis of the very best 
that had been previously developed. A divinely or- 
dered catastrophe, rather than an evolutionary process 
brought about a survival of the fittest. Noah stands 
for a new humanity starting from a new center. 

At this point one naturally asks why God did not 
completely annihilate the race, and by another creative 
act repeople the earth with beings who would be 
righteous. The answer to that question is plain. If 
the new beings were endowed with the majestic pre- 
rogative of_free-will they would be as much exposed 
to the peril of an evil choice as the race of Adam. 
Here we touch some of the ultimate problems of ex- 
istence, and the region is full of mystery; but it is 
reasonable to suppose that free-will is such a splendid 
endowment of being that God confers it in full view 
of the peril it involves. 

And this freedom is not only the supreme glory of 
man, but it is the basis of the supreme glory of God. 
God's highest glory could not be revealed in autom- 
ata that could not sin, but in beings who, though they 
can sin, are responsive to the motives to righteous- 
ness, and by these motives are led, even out of sin, 
into vital fellowship with Himself. How beautifully 
this is brought out in our Lord's interpretation of the 
Eighth Psalm! That Psalm, which perhaps is more 
frequently alluded to in the New Testament than any 
other passage in the entire Old Testament, is a de- 
scription of God's glory as seen in creation. Jesus, 
in quoting it, gives the Hebrew phrase a delicate turn, 
and makes it read : "Out of the mouths of babes comes 
the perfect praise" (Mt. 21:16). In other words, 
the tribute of a human heart to God, even of a babe, 



Chapter 3. The Vision of Judgment 9 

is a greater manifestation of the glory of God than 
all the wonders of the heavens. That is so because 
the human heart is free. The creation of a new race 
would not have changed the problem, if that race was 
to be endowed with freedom of choice. 

But, reading between the lines, it is easy to see that 
the new start of the race, after the deluge, was ac- 
companied by a new tutelage. The inherent capacity 
of man to overcome evil has been disproved. Now 
God brings new motives to bear upon human life. 
We cannot possibly imagine a more impressive object 
lesson as to the evil desert of sin than the tremendous 
catastrophe that had overtaken the corrupt race. At 
the same time the marvelous deliverance of the sur- 
vivors must have aroused in their hearts the deep- 
est convictions as to the mercy of God. The promise 
that the flood should not be repeated ; the assurances 
as to the stability of the course of nature ; the removal 
of the curse upon the ground, and the safeguards 
thrown about human life are tokens that mankind is 
entering upon a new period. The goodness of the 
Noachian stock is not the sole factor for a better hu- 
manity. A new set of moral forces is brought to bear 
upon human souls. Human history now enters upon 
a new dispensation, which has as its characteristic 
mark the revelation of motives that appeal directly 
to the moral nature of man. We shall see, as we 
continue the study of the book of Genesis, how stead- 
ily this moral factor is made prominent until it 
clearly points forward to the supreme revelation in 
Jesus Christ. 



io Old Testament History 

CHAPTER IV. 
THE WAY OF FAITH. 
Gen. 11 : 27—15 : 21. 

The migration of Abraham from Chaldea to Ca- 
naan ranks as one of the most important events in 
the history of the race. If we except the fall of Adam 
and the crucifixion of Jesus, probably it Is the most 
important, for it marks the beginning of a new spirit- 
ual order in the world. From the call of Abraham 
and his response to it came the separation of the 
Chosen People from the rest of mankind. To this 
people God imparted those large and vital concep- 
tions of religious truth upon which Christianity^rests. 
It is impossible to understand Christianity without 
Judaism, or Judaism without Abraham. In studying 
the call of Abraham, therefore, we stand at the foun- 
tain head of mankind's spiritual history. This Mes- 
opotamian sheik was the progenitor and forerunner 
of all those who live the life of faith. 






Haran, in Mesopotamia. 

In its superficial aspects the migration of Abraham 
does not differ from that series of migrations which 
for thousands of years poured westward from the 
Euphrates valley. The leaders of these movements 
had substantially the same hopes that Abraham had — 
opportunity for agricultural expansion and for found- 
ing a prosperous, homogeneous race. We must seek 
the distinctive feature of the Abrahamic movement in 



Chapter 4. The Way of Faith 11 

its inner temper and motive. What set Abraham go- 
ing was something deeper than the spirit of adven- 
ture, or the secular attractions of the enterprise." To 
this man had come the conviction of the existence of 
the one^true God. Relatively to the conceptions of 
his time he had formed an exceedingly noble concep- 
tion of the divine character. , He had become con- 
vinced that it was God's will that he should under- 
take this enterprise. From this point of view the mi- 
gration of Abraham, though it had its secular as- 
pects, was not at heart a secular movement at all, but 
a witness in the sphere of the secular to one man's 
belief in the one true God, and in his loyalty to Him. 

And because belief in God and loyalty to Him in- 
spired this migration, it is used so frequently by the 
Bible writers as a rather salient illustration of faith. 
The elements of belief and affection and obedience are 
so interwoven in faith that we fall into grievous error 
the moment we attempt to define it in the terms of one 
of these factors alone. It is a belief, but not a belief 
that is an end in itself, or that fails to control action; 
it is obedience, but not the servile compliance with a 
command ; it is affection, but not an unintelligent emo- 
tion, or one ineffective for good. 

The faith of Abraham, as shown in this migration, 
combined these three elements. First of all there was 
that marvelous conviction that somehow 1 had arisen in 
his soul as to the existence of one God, and the ex- 
cellence of His character. Then~there was his obedi- 
ence to the command of God, but it was not an obedi- 
ence to a military order, which makes no human ap- 
peal except to the recognition of authority. Through 
great promises Abraham's love and confidence had 
been elicited and his view of the divine nature en- 
larged. That is why throughout the Scriptures com- 
mands are linked almost invariably to promises. Even 
the ten commandments, that may seem like a series 
of prohibitions, are not an exception to this state- 
ment, for we do not understand them in their reach 



12 Old Testament History 

and far outlook until we read them in the light of the 
promises connected with them in the book of Deuter- 
onomy. The promises of God evoke in us something 
deeper and more vital than a sense of authority, they 
awaken in our souls the rich human response of grati- 
tude and love and trust. 

Thus we see this great man of old, moved by a 
sense of God coming to him in command and prom- 
ise, going forth whole-heartedly to do the thing that 
corresponded with his spiritual conviction. The sur- 
renders of intellect and affection and will to the suffi- 
ciently attested revelation of God are the component 
parts of faith. 

And, in leading Abraham to this rich, large faith, 
God did not scruple to address the whole man. A 
motive may be good, but not the highest, and we have 

-^to be trained to respond to the highest motives. God 
appeals to Abraham's desire for posterity and influ- 

Aence. "I will make of thee a great nation and make 
thy name great.' ' He appeals to a higher motive 
still — his desire to serve^others : "In thee shall all the 
families of the earth bej)lessed." And, later, He ap- 
peals to the noblest motive of which we can conceive 
— the desire for fellowship with Himself: "I will be 
thy exceeding great reward." God's promises touched 
the whole range of his interests. But gradually the 
motives to which God appealed took their proper 
place in his life, as they do in every obedient life. 
There are few more interesting studies than to analyze 
the experiences of Abraham, which developed in him 
an increasing susceptibility to the highest motives. 
After the self-denial, following the rescue of Lot, he 
was ready for the supreme appeal and promise, and 
his whole life came to rest on it: "Fear not, Abram: 
I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward" 
(Gen. 15:1). 



Chapter 5. The Life of Faith 13 

CHAPTER V. 

THE LIFE OF FAITH. 

Gen. 16 : 1—25 : 11; 26 : 1-5. 

It is one thing to undertake an enterprise, another 
to prosecute it to a successful end ; one thing to make 
a high resolve, another to be faithful in all emer- 
gencies. The career of Abraham, "the Father of the 
Faithful," is not throughout perfectly consistent with 
fidelity to God. The journey into Egypt looks like 
a token of infirmity of purpose, while the prevarica- 
tion to Pharaoh and the distrust of the fulfilment of 
the promise of posterity seen in the episode of Ish- 
mael, disclose the man in his weaker moods. But we 
must not mistake the eddies in the current for the 
main stream. Taken as a whole, the career of Abra- 
ham is a resplendent illustration of a life upon a very 
high level. The man was tenacious of spiritual real- 
ities ; he was controlled by his moral convictions ; he 
believed in God ; he lived the life of faith. His biogra- 
pher gives us several interesting "proofs of this. 

One is his magnanimous attitude toward his 
nephew, Lot. There are men who, without any great 
natural capacity, become very prosperous, because 
they happen to be associated by blood relationship 
or by marriage with really able men. It was prob- 
ably because Lot "went with Abram" that he had 
"flocks, and herds, and tents" (Gen. 13 : 5). Such men 
are apt to be quite insistent on their rights. The quar- 
rel of the shepherds put Abraham in a delicate posi- 
tion. If he surrendered the best of the country to 
Lot, it looked as if he were subjecting the promise of 
God that he should inherit the land to a long post- 
ponement. But Abraham believed in_God so thor- 
oughly that he did not take that view of the case at 
all. To his mind the fulfilment of God's promises 
did not depend upon his sharpness in a bargain, or a 
close insistence onjiis rights, at the cost of a quarrel. 
He believed in God so much that he could cheerfully 
adopt the most magnanimous course, certain that 






14 



Old Testament History 




God's promise would not fail in the evolution of 

events. 

A more striking proof of the same faith is given in 

the story of his conduct after the death of Sarah. 

Among the Orientals the desire to be buried with 

their kin is very 
strong. The sons 
of Jacob brought 
the body of their 
father back from 
Egypt to Pales- 
tine. The hosts of 
the exodus brought 
back the bones of 
Joseph to the fa- 
therland. About 
half a century had 
passed since Abra- 
ham first entered 
the country that 
God promised 

dans, who will allow no (Jnristians to see it. l'ne l ij r i • An A 
above cut is from a stereograph copyrighted by SnOUia De mS. AnU 
Underwood & Underwood, N. f. yet he d j d noy^ 

sess a foot of ground in it. The long delay migh"T 
well awaken distrust of the promise. In these 
circumstances the natural thing would be to carry 
the body of Sarah back to Chaldea — the land of 
their common kin. But Abraham believed God. He 
did not possess the land yet, but he believed that it 
would be his — the home of his race — and so he bought 
"the field of Machpelah before Mamre" for a burying 
place. 

There is something indescribably fine about this. It 
is a comparatively simple thing to obey a command. 
The precept marks out the path. But to be as true 
to the inevitable sequences of your faith as if they 
were embodied in commands, requires an honest soul, 
moved by deep and noble insights. Many a man to-day 
fails to live the life of faith because he does not see 



Mohammedan Mosque over the Cave of 
Machpelah. 

This cave was the burial place of the patriarchs. 
It is guarded very jealously by the Mohamme 
dans, who will allow no Christians to see it. The 



Chapter 5. The Life of Faith 15 

that the legitimate sequences of his faith are quite as 
binding on his conscience as any command of God. 

And then, too, the faith of this man was revealed 
by his attitude toward the command to sacrifice Isaac. 
The moral difficulty that some have felt in connection 
with this incident is resolved when we realize that 
God did not command Abraham to do something re- 
pugnant to his moral ideas. For, at this time, Abra- 
ham, like the heathen around him, believed that hu- 
man sacrifices were the most acceptable offerings that 
could be made to the Deity. And it is to be observed 
that in accommodating His command to the moral 
status of the man to whom it was given, God used it 
as a means of lifting the ideas of Abraham and his 
posterity to a higher level. Through this experience, 
in a flash, the sacredness of human life was revealed 
to Abraham and his raceT The lesson was never for- 
gotten. Henceforth the climax of apostasy from God 
was the worship of Molech by human sacrifices 
(Deut. 12: 31; Jer. 7: 31). 

The shock this command gave to Abraham was not 
to his moral ideas, but to his ambition, his affections, 
his faith in God's promises. Against the hopes and 
trusts of a lifetime there was arrayed a command 
which he believed to be morally right, and he chose 
the way of obedience. He absolutely surrendered 
himself to the will of God. The sacrifice that God 
demanded was not the sacrifice of Isaac, but the spir- 
itual sacrifice of Isaac's father, and, by Abraham's 
heroic willingness to sacrifice the hopes of a lifetime, 
he demonstrated the royal quality of his faith in God. 

To-day the divine command is constantly running 
athwart our pleasures, our ambitions and the things 
upon which we have set our hearts. The man of faith 
is not the one who simply adheres to a statement of 
belief, but the man who subordinates his advantage 
and himself to a knowledge of God's will. Faith is 
the stuff out of which heroism is made. The men 
of faith are the heroes of the world. 



16 Old Testament History v 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE FORCES THAT TRANSFORM CHARACTER. 
Gen. 25 : 19-34; 26 : 6—35 : 29. 

Abraham had much to try his faith in the fulfil- 
ment of the Great Promise (Gen. 12: 2, 3), but, on 
the whole, his career was a noble illustration of con- 
fidence in God and loyalty to Him. The rather color- 
less personality of Isaac, to whom the Great Promise 
was renewed (Gen. 26: 3, 4) hardly corresponds with 
our notion of a successful founder of a race. Still, 
Isaac had the steadfast quality, which is so admirably 
outlined in the description, "The man waxed great, 
and grew more and more until he became very great" 
(Gen. 26: 13). 

In Jacob, however, the son of Isaac, we have one 
of the commanding personalities of human history. 
He stamped himself so indelibly upon his descendants 
that the whole race is known as "the children of 
Israel." Few men have done so much for civiliza- 
tion and religion as the second son of Isaac. 

The natural disposition of Jacob was singularly un- 
lovely. He was sly, crafty, dishonest. Esau, in many 
ways, is far more attractive ; but somehow, Esau's 
course, if not downward, is on a level. There is no 
force of moral progress in him, while Jacob's way is 
steadily upward. His sympathies broaden; he comes 
into alliance with God ; his whole nature is so changed 
that he deserves a new name. We come to recog- 
nize the fitness of calling him no longer Jacob — "the 
heel-catcher," but Israel — "a Prince of the Lord." 

Several forces contributed to this transformation. 
The great ones were the man's own sense of values, 
and the grace of God. 

In the household of Isaac the ancestral birthright, 
belonging to the older son, must have been inseparably 
connected with the Great Promise. The promise could 
not be fulfilled except through the head of the fam- 
ily. The two lads, Esau and Jacob, may have heard 
of the Great Promise from the lips of Abraham him- 



Chapter 6. Forces that Transform Character 17 

self, for they were sixteen years old when their grand- 
father died. Certainly they knew all about it from 
Isaac. Upon Esau the prospect of the great inheri- 
tance and destiny made no impression. Esau, it is 
said, "despised his birthright," and the reason is given 
in the epistle to the Hebrews (12:16, 17), where 
Esau is characterized as a "profane person, 7 ' that is, 
secularly minded. He could easily reduce a spiritual 
inheritance to the common denominator of things 
good to eat. 

Jacob's craft and dishonorable readiness to take ad- 
vantage of his brother's ignoble mood are not to be 
passed by without severe condemnation, but the fact 
cannot be overlooked that Jacob valued supremely 
what Esau regarded so flippantly. Jacob's methods 
were contemptible, but his sense of the worth of the 
birthright deserves all praise. With all his faults he 
had a spiritual eye. He could prize things that he 
could not eat. There is a vast hope, even for a man 
like Jacob, who has some sense of spiritual values. 
There is something in such a man to which an effec- 
tive spiritual appeal can be made. But for men like 
Esau, no matter how generous and attractive they may 
be, there is no hope, so long as they do not believe in 
anything they cannot see and touch and eat. Life to 
Esau will mean the hunt, the feast, the headship of 
a tribe. Life to Jacob will mean self -revelation, the 
subordination of lower values to higher, and a divine 
unrest that finds peace only in God. There was a 
subtle, mighty force, in the very constitution of Ja- 
cob's soul, making him a better man. 

And the helpful, loving presence of God — "God's 
grace," we call it to-day — came to Jacob through the 
channel of this desire. We read the narrative of Ja- 
cob's experience at Beth-el with surprise. We say: 
"Here was a man who deceived his father, and 
wronged his brother, and God gave him a revelation 
like that, and renewed to him the Great Promise. 
What are we to make of it? Does it show that 



1 8 Old Testament History 

righteousness is not a condition of enjoying the favor 
of God?" 

This very objection brings into view a primary fea- 
ture of the religion of the Bible. In spite of his sin, 
Jacob had a true desire, and that desire became a lad- 
der down which angels thronged. Every religion ex- 
cept that of the Bible says, "Do good, practice right- 
eousness that you may win the favor of God." Chris- 
tianity says, "Do good, practice righteousness, because 
you have the favor of God." It is primarily and es- 
sentially a revelation of God's grace to sinful men. 
"God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 
5:8). The vision of Beth-el was not a rebuke or a sen- 




Modem Bethel. 

tence of judgment. Jacob's own heart could be trust- 
ed for that. It was the disclosure of a high calling, 
a noble privilege, a splendid destiny. To the sinful 
fugitive, sleeping on a pillow of stones, the Great 
Promise was renewed. Jacob's heart received a new 
uplift and inspiration, and, after that night at Beth- 
el, he was never again the same man. 

The experience at Peniel, twenty and more years 
later, was a fitting supplement to the vision at Beth- 
el. He was returning to the promised land confident 
in his sagacity and resources. But the fruitage of 
his old sin in the heart of Esau threatens him, and 
he has to reckon with God as well as with his broth- 



Chapter 6. Forces that Transform Character 19 

er. In the night watches, wrestling with the mysterious 
stranger, and becoming wounded and helpless, he 
learned that if he entered into the Great Promise at 
all, it must be by receiving it as a gift from the hand of 
God. It was too vast a thing to be won by his own 
strategy and resources, but it was not too vast a thing 
for God to bestow of His grace upon the sinful crip- 
ple. No wonder that when the man began to take 
some measure of the grace of God toward him, he 
was thoroughly transformed. And, in a night, as a 
climax of the revelation of grace that began at Beth- 
el, he received that new name, which, from its high 
spiritual significance, has since been applied to the 
whole Israel of God. 



20 



Old Testament History 



CHAPTER VII. 

man's plans and god's purpose. 
Gen. chs. 37-50; Ex. 1 : 1-7. 

Not long ago the question was raised in a company 
of eminent literary men, "What is the best short story 
ever written?" It was agreed almost unanimously 
that the highest place belonged to the story of Joseph, 
as told in Genesis, and next to it in literary merit was 
the book of Jonah. 

The story of Joseph, however, not only belongs to 
literature of the very first order, but it illustrates 
truths of the first importance. 




The Great Pyramids of Gizeh. 

These pyramids were many centimes old at the time of Joseph and 
must have been often aeen by him. 

It was a most fortunate thing for Israel that far 
back near the origin of the race, there stood forth such 
an admirable human character as Joseph. The career 
of Joseph is unique among the biographies of the 
Scripture in being without reproach or flaw. From 
whatever angle his personality is viewed, it reflects 
light and beauty, and, as you peer into its crystal 
depths, it reveals mysterious qualities of grace and 
strength. Thousands and thousands of Jewish and 
Puritan mothers have been so impressed with the 
brightness and charm, the purity and strength of the 
child of Jacob and Rachel, that they have named their 
first-born sons Joseph. We can hardly overestimate 



Chapter 7. Man's Plans and God's Purpose 21 

our indebtedness in this country to the noble character 
of George Washington. His memory is at once an 
inspiration and a rebuke. A blessing like that came 
to Israel because a good and a great man, like Joseph, 
stood near the fountain head of the national life. 

And the career of this singularly attractive man il- 
lustrated in a vivid way two central truths — the pow- 
er of faith to sweeten and strengthen character, and 
the over-ruling providence of God. 

When the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews 
speaks of the faith of Joseph he takes a somewhat pe- 
culiar incident to illustrate it. He says : "By faith 
Joseph, when his end was nigh, made mention of the 
departure of the children of Israel ; and gave com- 




A Family of Asiatics Going to Egypt, 
From a wall painting of Joseph's time. 

mandment concerning his bones" (Heb. 11:22). But 
the writer's insight did not fail him. The fact that 
when Joseph was dying the promise of God that his 
race should inherit Canaan was uppermost in his 
thought; that he should have so thoroughly believed 
that his people would return that he desired, as a 
last request, that they should carry his bones with 
them, was a resplendent example of the far-reaching 
outlook of faith in God. 

This is the key to Joseph's character. His story is 
full of trouble and failure and bitter disappointment; 
but the little child who hears it read cannot miss the 
note of serenity and cheer that runs through it. What 
is the secret of it but this? The man had, and the 



22 Old Testament History 

writer makes us feel that he had, a confidence in God 
that nothing could appall. If, at several points in his 
life he had attempted to interpret the purpose of God 
for him, we can see how grievously astray his conclu- 
sion would have been. He could not possibly have 
seen how events were working to put him near the 
throne, in a position to be the deliverer of his brothers, 
who had been seeking his life. Before the climax 
almost every feature of his career is mysterious and in- 
explicable. After it has reached its end we can see 
that part has been related to part with delicate and 
perfect adjustment. The temptation to reason that 
the pit, or the unjust accusation, or the dungeon, or 
the ingratitude of his fellows was the end in the light 
of which his life was to be construed, was stronger 
and more subtile than any enticement addressed to his 
senses. But he was patient and cheerful; he did not 
judge anything "before the time" (i Cor. 4:5), and 
he was confident that he was in the hands of a good 
God. 

This is the open secret of a cheerful temper. We 
can always make ourselves miserable by interpreting 
God and life from the point of view of our overthrows 
and disappointments, or we can have our hearts filled 
with serenity and cheer because we are willing to read 
the volume of experience to its close, in the faith 
that God's purposes are those of goodness and love. 

But we misread the story if we think that it teaches 
that by industry or honestry or skill alone Joseph 
rose to the great position that enabled him to care for 
his brethren, and to provide a refuge for his race un- 
til it was stong enough to become a nation. No pos- 
sible effort or industry on Joseph's part could have 
suggested to him the correct interpretation of the pris- 
oners' dreams, or could have brought it about that his 
name should be presented to Pharoah's attention at 
"the psychological moment." What we call "the chap- 
ter of accidents" played a very large part in Joseph's 
life. Events combined and conspired in a marvelous 



Chapter 7. Man's Plans and God's Purpose 23 



way for his advancement. But Pharoah had a better 
explanation than our "chapter of accidents" to account 
for Joseph's success (Gen. 41: 38). The king saw 
that here was a man who was directed and used by a 
Higher Power. 

"It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" 
(Jer. 10: 23). Behind all our plans and activities 
there are the purposes of God. The very things that 
seem to thwart those purposes, like the evil devices 
of Joseph's brothers, He can overrule and make them 
important steps toward the fulfilment of His aims ; 
the trivial accidental circumstance, utterly beyond hu- 
man control, may play like a wheel into His plan ; and 
the best and noblest efforts of man may receive from 
their association with His purpose a significance and 
influence wholly incalculable by the wit of man. 

Israel, as we know, often looked back upon the ca- 
reer of Joseph with gratitude and wonder. His life 
still interprets to us the workings of Providence in 
the experience of men and of nations. 



\y 




Egyptian Human -headed Sphinx. 



24 Old Testament History 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE RESOURCES OF GOD. 

Ex. 1 : 8—4 : 31. 

For several centuries the descendants of Abraham 
found just the conditions in Egypt that enabled the 
tribe to develop steadily and happily into the nation. 
At length the time came for this people to begin an 
independent existence. It would have been wholly 
impossible for the most studious observer to antici- 
pate the method by which God would accomplish 
this end. There was nothing in the situation, as it 
had developed during hundreds of years, to lead one 
to suppose that the future of Israel was not inextri- 
cably bound to Egypt. But the resources of God are 
not limited by the forecasts of men. Unexpected and 
simple means are at the disposal of God to reverse 
the calculations of the wisest men. God brought 
Israel out of Egypt — brought the nation to birth — 
through the agency of two men, who did not dream, 
until the last moment, when the clock of destiny 
struck, that they were fulfilling the divine purpose. 

The first of these men was Pharaoh, king of 
Egypt. From the point of view of practical states- 
manship the situation presented to Pharaoh a most 
interesting problem. His policy was directed to two 
ends — he wanted to check the increasing strength and 
influence of the Hebrews in Egypt, and at the same 
time to keep them in the country. They were too val- 
uable a source of wealth to be forfeited. The means 
he took to accomplish these ends were natural enough, 
but fatuous, and the result was the exact opposite to 
what he intended. 

Pharaoh, like most absolute rulers, thought he 
could do anything he chose by brute force. His pol- 
icy closely resembled that of the present Russian gov- 
ernment in dealing with the Jews. Now oppression 



Chapter 8. The Resources of God 



25 



and persecution can accomplish wonders if they are 
thorough to the point of extermination. But the prob- 
lem of preventing a high-spirited, resourceful subject 
race from exercising its legitimate influence, while it 
is exploited in the interests of the ruling people, is 
insoluble. It fails to-day in Russia just as it failed 
Egypt. The results of this policy in Egypt were the 
invariable ones. The ties, which had been forming 
for centuries between the 
Israelites and their adopted 
country, were ruptured, and 
they themselves were unified 
in a common hatred of the 
government, and in a com- 
mon desire to leave the 
country and establish an in- 
dependent existence. Thus 
the short-sighted policy of 
Pharaoh paved the way for 
the fulfilment of God's plan 
to bring His people out of 

Egypt. 

The second agency that 
made the separation of Is- 

, c t-, . , The Pharaoh of the oppression, 

rael irom EsfVpt SUCCeSSIUl TMb statue stands in the doorway of 
, , -V A . , a temple at Thebes. 

was the providential man — 

Moses. It did not matter how numerous the Hebrews 
were, or how ready they were to break away 
from Egypt, their outlook was hopeless without a wise, 
strong leader. There are infinite possibilities in a 
great soul. We say beforehand that a certain situ- 
ation is impossible, a certain problem is insoluble; 
the right man comes, and all difficulties vanish. The 
most precious thing in the world is not wealth or 
combinations of men, but it is a human soul of in- 
sight, genius and devotion. There may be to-day play- 
ing in our village streets, attending our Sunday 
school, a lad who will give the Christian church the 



ml 

1 


r ^m^ssm^m 











Colossal Statue of Rameses II. 



26 



Old Testament History 



strongest impulse it has received since the days of 
Augustine. God has given the modern world great 
inventors and discoverers, great financiers, great or- 
ganizers of material things. May it not be that He 
will give us a religious genius who shall help make 
the life of the spirit dominant over the tremendous 
material forces of our time ? We cannot tell how God 
will fulfil His purposes, but the narrative gives us a 
hint of the vast resources locked up in human person- 
alities which are liberated by a touch of God's finger. 
He used a woman's wit to rescue the child whose per- 
sonality and genius overshadows all the forces of his 
time, not even excepting the throne of Egypt. When 
the daughter of Pharaoh was moved to save the life 
of the Hebrew babe she was setting in motion a 
stream of influence that not only was to make a na- 
tion, but to fashion institutions that mould human 
life to-day in Europe and America. 




The Temple at Luxor, Restored. 

And then, too, we see that God not only sent this 
great soul of Moses into the world, but He trained 
him in providential ways for the vast service he was 
to render Israel. The greatest man in human his- 



Chapter 8. The Resources of God 27 

tory was not extemporized or suffered to develop his 
powers by chance. His education was arranged to 
the minutest detail. The years of study in the Egyp- 
tian temple schools, and of personal familiarity with 
the leading men of his time ; the long period of isola- 
tion from the world, and of silent brooding upon the 
problems of life and society and government; the 
teachings of Jehovah learned from a Hebrew mother, 
and the meditation upon His character and way, all 
combined to form that massive character of Moses. 

At last the call came. Up to this, Moses did not at 
all understand the purpose of his life. Like most of 
us, he did not even know what he was fit for. At 
first he was reluctant to obey the call, but at the burn- 
ing bush he knew that the hour for which he was 
made had come. The clock struck. The purpose of 
the great gifts and of the providential training was 
evident. All that there was in his nature and experi- 
ence crystallized. And when, in obedience to the com- 
mand of God, Moses stands before Pharaoh, we see 
that the providential man has come. 

Through the short-sighted and self-willed policy of 
Pharaoh, and through the great capacity and magnif- 
icent experience of Moses, God opened the way for 
the deliverance of Israel from Egypt — a nation was to 
be born. 



28 



Old Testament History 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE MIGHTY DELIVERANCE. 

Ex. 5 : 1—15 : 21. 

It was no easier for the Israelites than it is for men 
of our time to discern the true significance of events 

near at hand. Of course, 
certain dramatic features of 
the exodus at once im- 
pressed them ; but it was 
only after years had passed 
that they saw the political 
and religious aspects of the 
great event, and that, on 
the one hand, it was the 
birth of a nation, and, on 
the other, a revelation of 
surpassing moment of the 
character of Jehovah and of 
His relation to His people. 
In the light of this fact we 
do well to consider just 
what this great deliverance 
came to signify in the spiritual consciousness of Israel. 
For one thing it meant a vast enlargement of their 
conception of God. During their life in Egypt they 
may not have realized that the God they worshiped — 
the God of their fathers — was more than a tribal 
god, but after the exodus they could not ignore the 
fact that the policy of the strong, resolute, and able 
king of Egypt had absolutely broken down in his de- 
fiance of the command of Jehovah; and they could 
not fail to see that the very things which were sup- 
posed to be under the protection of the gods of Egypt 
had been used to plague the Egyptians. The evidence 
was incontrovertible that neither the great kins: of 
Egypt, nor the gods of Egypt, could withstand Jeho- 




Portrait Statue of Merneptah. 
The Pharaoh of the exodus. 



Chapter 9. The Mighty Deliverance 29 

vah (Ex. 12:12; 15:11; 18:11). The time might 
be far distant before any except the noblest souls in 
Israel could say: 

"All the gods of the peoples are idols : 
But Jehovah made the heavens." Ps. 96 : 5. 

But Israel took a long step toward that supreme 
recognition when the significance of the deliverance 
from Egypt sank into her heart. 

And beyond this, the exodus, accomplished by such 
marvelous displays of divine power, aroused a new 
confidence in Jehovah. While Israel's thought of 
God was enlarged, her appreciation of the care of 
God for her was deepened. Of course, one might 
point to the murmurings soon after the Red Sea had 
been passed, repeated often in the wanderings, to 
show that the great event did not awaken any abid- 
ing gratitude : 

"Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; 
They remembered not the multitude of thy lovingkindnesses, 
But were rebellious at the sea, even at the Bed Sea." Ps 106 : 7. 

Still, when we look at Hebrew history in the large, 
we see that a new sense of the goodness of God stole 
into the heart of Israel. Jehovah, who had saved 
His people by a mighty hand, loved them. They had 
a firm basis of confidence in Him. How beautifully 
this is brought out in the book of Deuteronomy: 
"When thou goest 
forth to battle 
against thine en- 
emies, and see st 
horses, and chari- 
ots, and a people 
more than thou, 
thou shalt not be 
afraid of them,; for Egyptian chariots. 

Jehovah thy God is with thee, who brought thee up 
out of the land of Egypt" (Deut. 20: 1). 

It is interesting to see how those two great proph- 




30 Old Testament History 

ets of consolation, Ezekiel and Hosea, use the fact 
that God brought Israel out of Egypt as the convin- 
cing reason for believing that He will not forsake 
His people, but always deal with them in mercy and 
goodness. Indeed, there is much to show that the 
deliverance from Egypt occupied a place in the life 
and thought of the Hebrew people like that occu- 
pied by the cross of Christ in the later revelation. 
The Jews always regarded the exodus as a supreme 
disclosure of the love of God. And the light of the 
great event still irradiates the hearts of the Hebrews 
in every land in which the passover is kept. 

And naturally enough Israel's attitude toward this 
event, which so enlarged her conception of God and 
deepened her confidence in Him, came to be the meas- 
ure of sin and of righteousness. A great moral ex- 
perience, especially a great deliverance, always car- 
ries with it a new moral standard. That is why the 
prophets so often introduce their rebukes by the re- 
flection that Jehovah, whose law the people have de- 
spised, is the God who brought them out of Egypt 
with a mighty hand. To take only one instance from 
many: When the writer of the book of Kings seeks 
to give us an impression of the sin of Israel that jus- 
tified the Assyrian captivity, he says : "And it was so, 
because the children of Israel had sinned against Je- 
hovah their God, who brought them up out of the land 
of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of 
Egypt" (2 Ki. 17:7). In Judaism, just as in Chris- 
tianity, the soul's attitude toward the revelation of 
God's grace measured human sin. 

But there is another side to this matter. The He- 
brews constantly found in this great deliverance the 
strong and blessed motive to righteousness. The ten 
commandments do not rest for their authority and 
motive upon arbitrary fiat. The sentence which in- 
troduces them shoots through them all a ray of the 
divine love: "I am Jehovah thy God, who brought 



Chapter 9. The Mighty Deliverance. 31 

thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of 
bondage" (Ex. 20: 1). It is the God who delivered 
Israel from the Egyptian bondage who gives Israel 
His law. That makes the law also a revelation of 
love, and brings with the law the highest and holiest 
motive for obedience to it. 

No one can ponder the significance that the exodus 
came to have in the spiritual life of Israel without a 
fresh conviction of its historical reality, and of its 
far-reaching importance in the religious life of the 
world. It is so great an epoch in the story of human 
redemption that St. John tells us that the song of 
Moses will be sung with the song of the Lamb to 
the harps of God by the sea of glass (Rev. 15 : 2, 3). 



32 Old Testament History 



CHAPTER X. 

MAKING A NATION. 
Ex. 15 : 22—34 : 35. 

The control and organization of the multitude, de- 
livered from Egypt, was a vast enterprise. It is cer- 
tainly an exaggeration to speak of those who took 
part in the exodus as "a horde of slaves." Such a 
phrase is totally misleading, if it suggests a mass of 
ignorant humanity like that which Alexander II 
freed from bondage in Russia in 1861, and Abraham 
Lincoln emancipated in our own country two years 
later. The Hebrews had not been enslaved in Egypt 
for any great length of time, and their servitude was 
of a totally different type from that which prevailed in 
the West Indies and in the southern part of the United 
States during the first half of the nineteenth century. 
The Hebrews had never lost their own noble tradi- 
tions, and they had absorbed something of Egyptian 
civilization. 

But, whatever the degree of cultivation the He- 
brews had reached, the task of Moses and his asso- 
ciates was vast almost beyond computation. The peo- 
ple lacked almost all the elements requisite for na- 
tional life, except the consciousness of a common 
origin, and the memory of a common deliverance 
from oppression. The work of Moses was to trans- 
form a multitude into a nation, a lump of clay into a 
block of marble, so homogeneous and elastic that 
great impulses and ideals would be transmitted and 
vibrate through the whole mass. On the whole, in 
spite of many failures the task was successfully ac- 
complished. The homogeneity and vitality of the 
Hebrew race is a perpetual witness to the great 
achievement. 

We can readily discriminate several forces which 
contributed to the success of this enterprise. 



Chapter 10. Making a Nation 33 

One was the conviction, impresed upon the whole 
people, that God was with them, and that they were 
wholly dependent upon Him. We might think that 
the deliverance from Egypt, by itself, would be 
enough to fasten this conviction, but, as the writer 
of the one hundred and sixth Psalm sees so clearly, 
men forget even great providences. In the weeks 
immediately following the exodus the sense of depend- 
ence on God was deepened by a series of remarkable 
events. The sweetening of the waters of Marah (Ex. 
15:23-25); the giving of the quails and the manna 
(Ex. ch. 16) ; the gushing of the waters from the 
rock at Meribah (Ex. 17:1-7), and the defeat of 




From a photograph by Professor George L. Robinson. 
The Wilderness near Sinai. 

the Amalekites at Rephidim (Ex. 17:8-16) were 
vivid evidences that God was with them. To be sure, 
all doubts and murmurings were not banished by 
these deliverances. There was still room in their na- 
tures for the surprising infidelity disclosed in the epi- 
sode of the golden calf (Ex. ch. 32). But there are 
abundant indications that these great displays of di- 
vine power in their behalf created a common convic- 
tion of dependence upon God that unified the peo- 
ple, making them conscious of a common life and a 
common destiny. 

We see another contribution toward making the 
nation in the administrative system introduced by 
Moses, at the suggestion of Jethro (Ex. ch. 18). An 



34 Old Testament History 

onlooker often sees more of the game than the play- 
ers; and that was the case with Jethro, the father-in- 
law of Moses, who seems to have been a man of rare 
good sense and practicality. If the fact that the sug- 
gestion came from Jethro seems to detract from the 
genius of Moses, let us reflect that Moses showed ca- 
pacity of a high order in not rejecting a good idea, 
simply because it was not his own. 

The great advantage of this articulated system of 
administration was not simply that it left Moses free 
for his great tasks — that, of course, was indispen- 
sable, and it was the point that especially appealed to 
Jethro — but it sharply discriminated between the legis- 
lative and judicial functions, keeping the former in 
the hands of Moses, as the minister of God; it set a 
most excellent standard of official competency (Ex. 
18: 21 ), indeed, a better one could hardly be framed, 
and it made the administrative mesh fine enough to 
bring the law into relation with every individual 
Israelite. It is hardly possible to overstate the influ- 
ence of this system in bringing order out of chaos, 
in articulating every individual to the life of the 
whole people, and so creating a national spirit and 
life. 

But the transcendent force in making the nation 
was the covenant with Jehovah. If we are to conceive 
of the idea of making this covenant as the thought 
of Moses it is a mark of colossal genius. But in all 
this matter we cannot discriminate between the 
thought of Moses and the suggestion of God. As in 
every worthy career, the human effort and the divine 
inspiration are inextricably blended (Ex. 35:30-35; 
Is. 54: 16). ^ 

The very idea that the Israelites, by the votes of in- 
dividuals, could make a covenant with Jehovah that 
would bind the whole people, gave every man in Israel 
a new sense of his relationship to the common life 
(Ex. 19: 7, 8). All that in modern times we imagine 



Chapter 10. Making a Nation 35 

that the suffrage can do in elevating the conception 
of citizenship, and in fusing the individual into the 
common life of the nation, was done, at a stroke, by 
submitting the acceptance of the covenant with Jeho- 
vah to the vote of the people. 

And more than this, the covenant in which the 
law was embodied brought home to every man's 
business and bosom his personal responsibility. For 
the welfare of the whole people was dependent upon 
the fidelity of individuals to the law of Jehovah. And 
the promises as to the prosperity and future great- 
ness of Israel, if the whole people kept the law of 
Jehovah, who had "brought them out of Egypt with 
a strong hand and a mighty arm," kindled the pa- 
triotic and religious devotion of every Israelite to 
Jehovah and to the nation. 



36 Old Testament History 

CHAPTER XL 

THE SECRET OF FAILURE. 
Num. 10 : 29—14 : 45. 

In reading the history of Israel we have something 
of the feeling with which mature men review their 
own lives. They wonder that they were so stupid or 
perverse as not to keep right on in the best ways; 
that they have so often done that which was foolish 
and sinful. After the giving of the law at Sinai and 
the ratification of the covenant, the Israelites had only 
to follow the divine indications, in a spirit of faith 
and of loyalty to their pledge. Their murmurings 
against the privations of the march, in total forgetful- 
ness of the hardships of Egypt (Num. 14: 1-4), and 
in the plot of Aaron and Miriam against Moses, in 
which apparently many of the people joined (Num. 
12:1, 2), are features of the narrative thorougly 
true to human nature. 

At the same time we must not overlook the happy 
episodes of this period, which are equally true to the 
brighter side of human life. One is the total identi- 
fication of Moses with the welfare of the people 
(Num. 11 : 11 ; 14: 13-25) ; the other is the charming 
disclosure of the character of Hobab, who was im- 
movable to an appeal addressed to his self-interest 
(Num. 10:29), but responded at once to the idea 
that he could be of service to others (Num. 10:31). 

In the treatment the people gave to the reports 
of the spies we have one of those pivotal and tragic 
decisions which still interprets human experience. 

To begin with, it illustrates how the temper and 
bias of men color their conclusions. The ten spies, 
on the one hand, and Caleb and Joshua on the other, 
reasoned f rom the same set of facts, but the two re- 
ports reached opposite conclusions. Lack of faith, 
inability to take anything into account but the hard 



Chapter n. The Secret of Failure 37 

material facts of the situation, made the ten see noth- 
ing but giants and walled towns. Caleb and Joshua 
saw the same vast difficulties, but they had genuine 
insight into the meaning of the deliverance from 
Egypt, and confidence in the promise of God to give 
them this land. From that point of view they could 
see nothing but a glorious country which Israel was 
"well able to overcome." 

To-day one man says that from the facts of nature 
and life he reaches conclusions which banish cheer 
from the world ; while another sees that which bright- 
ens hope, and exalts the possibilities of the human 
soul. The difference between the two observers may 
not be in the strength of their understandings, but 
in the subtile insights and persuasions they bring to 
the study of the facts. The biography of George 
John Romanes shows how the insight of faith could 
transform the skeptical author of the "Candid Exam- 
ination of Theism" into the adoring believer, who 
wrote the "Thoughts on Religion." 

Again this episode in the life of Israel indicates 
how the very hardships and necessities of life may 
be incitements to faith. With their Egyptian mas- 
ters behind them the Israelites did not demur at 
crossing the Red Sea and incurring the perils certain 
to follow. But when they were in circumstances of 
comparative comfort they caught at the majority re- 
port of the spies as a pretext for not crossing Jor- 
dan and entering at once upon their heritage in Ca- 
naan. It is a singular circumstance that the Pilgrim 
Fathers, in the midst of starvation, pestilence and 
death, never lost their faith in the immortality of 
the soul, the reality of the spiritual life, and the lov- 
ing providence of God. While, not infrequently, we 
find those who, in the midst of plenty and happiness, 
become skeptical as to these essential features of the 
Christian revelation (Deut. 8:10, 11). Our difficul- 
ties and necessities often contribute more than we 
think for to our spiritual life. And this is not wholly 



38 



Old Testament History 




or chiefly because they discipline us in patience, but 
because they encourage us to the ventures of faith. 

And more than 
this, what a picture 
the story presents 
of the losses of un- 
faith ! The Israel- 
ites, for want of 
faith, refused to go 
up and possess the 
land, and were 
turned back into the 
wilderness for 
nearly forty years. 

From a photograph by Prof. G. L. Robinson. When their chil- 

Kadesh-barnea. dren cam e back to 

The place where the Israelites were turned back ^^ veTV Dlace 

into the wilderness. , * • r * 

where their fathers 
had halted, a new spirit moved them, and they 
marched forward into the promised land. The 
fathers wasted the best of their lives, spending them 
in the wilderness, instead of in Canaan, because they 
lacked faith. Their want of insight into their own 
history and of confidence in God was enormously 
expensive. 

We speak often of the losses that men sustain 
through lack of knowledge, judgment or capacity. 
The losses that come through lack of spiritual vision 
and obedience to God are even greater. We keep 
repeating the experience of the Hebrews. The prom- 
ised land is just before us, we take counsel of our 
fears ; Ave judge simply on the basis of what reports 
itself through the five senses ; we neglect our nobler 
intuitions — the delicate but mighty promptings 
through which the word of the Lord comes — and then 
we go back into the wilderness. After years have 
passed we come back to the very place where we 
were. There are the same giants and the same walled 
towns. Then we say, "I will obey," and, lo, the 



Chapter II. The Secret of Failure 39 



giants are not nearly so terrible, nor the towns so 
strong, when we come to close quarters with them. 
We have obeyed at last, and found that God is with 
those who have faith and act upon it, and we have 
entered Canaan. But the waste of it! The happy 
years we might have been there before! Our lack 
of faith kept us in the wilderness. 



40 



Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XII. 
THE DISCIPLINE OF ISRAEL. 
Num. chs. 16, 17; 20 : 1—21 : 9. 

The reader of the narrative describing Israel's thir- 
ty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness feels at 

once like asking, 
What did this ex- 
perience do for the 
nation? Were there 
any compensating 
advantages to Israel 




From a photograph. 

Scene in the Wilderness near Kadesh- 
barnea. 



in the hardships and 
disappointments in- 
volved in keeping 
the generation that 
left Egypt out of the 
land of promise? 

An important thing 
that the experiences 
of the wilderness did 
for the people was to reveal them to themselves. 
The Scriptures often dwell upon this purpose of 
trial and suffering. Such experiences show what 
is in men — the real constituents of their characters 
(Deut. 8: 2; i Pet. 1:7). The analogy is with the 
process of assaying, which reveals the proportion of 
valuable elements in the mass of ore. Undoubtedly, 
the generation that left Egypt had enjoyed many of 
the advantages of a high civilization, in spite of the 
fact that under the recent Pharaohs they had been in 
servitude. But, whatever else they knew or did not 
know, they were ignorant of themselves. Probably 
they did not imagine that there was in them such a 
spirit of faction and envy as to threaten the whole 
future of the great enterprise (Num. 16: 2, 3). Prob- 
ably they did not dream that their ingratitude and 






Chapter 12. The Discipline of Israel 41 

blindness to the significance of past deliverances and 
their distrust of God could lead them to such lengths 
as the murmurings at Meribah (Num. 20: 3-5), and 
during the journey around Edom (Num. 2.1: 5, 6). 
The testing of events revealed even in Moses an un- 
suspected weakness (Num. 20: 11, 12). 

Such disclosures of our real natures, elicited through 
the experiences of life, have a most important office 
in moral training. They take away self-conceit and 
the ungirt habit. They make men, who are sound at 
heart, humble and vigilant. It is a pitiful thing for 
men or a nation to confront great emergencies with- 
out the just appreciation of their limitations and de- 
fects which can only be gained in the actual experi- 
ences of life. Israel had defects enough through all 
her history, but she could not have rendered her vast 
service to humanity without the self-revelation of the 
forty years in the wilderness. 

The Scriptures attribute another result to hardship 
and trial. They tell us that such experiences not only 
reveal character, but that they purge the nature from 
gross elements, just as the process of refining eliminates 
the dross from the ore, leaving the pure metal (Job 
23:10; Zech. 13:9; Heb. 12:11). We can see this 
result clearly in the life of Israel. The outcome of 
the mutinies against Moses and Aaron (Num. 16:32, 
35, 47-50), of the murmurings at Meribah (Num. 20: 
8-11), and near Edom (Num. 21: 6) strongly im- 
pressed upon the whole people the evil of a factious, 
envious, ungrateful spirit, and helped to purify the 
life of the nation. Had the disposition of Koran, for 
example, dominated in Israel there could have been 
no loyal co-operation of the whole body of the Israel- 
ites in entering upon their heritage. The spirit that 
subordinates the conceit or interest of the individual 
to the welfare of the whole would have been entire- 
ly wanting. The compact hosts that confronted the 
Canaanites and crossed Jordan and surrounded Jericho 
were not welded together by brute force, they were 



42 Old Testament History 

solidified by experiences that purified and unified their 
moral natures in those long years of the wilderness. 

And then, too, we can hardly miss seeing that those 
years of wandering brought them a larger knowledge 
of God, that blossomed in a deeper confidence in Him. 
The way the people treated the reports of the spies 
showed that their distrust of God unfitted them to 
possess Canaan (Num. 14: 1-4). There are lessons 
not to be learned from sermons or books. They are 
taught by events, by the great experiences of human 
life that force their significance into the inmost re- 
cesses of the soul, so that the whole man is interpene- 
trated with it. A new revelation of the meaning of 
the sovereignty of God came to Israel in the fearful 
penalty upon Korah and his sympathizers; in the 
plague of serpents ; in the result of the self-sufficiency 
of Moses, and in the beautiful wonder of the blossom- 
ing rod. A new revelation of the grace of Jehovah 
came to them in the forbearance of God, notwithstand- 
ing their sins ; in the constant supply of the manna ; in 
the deliverance from the Canaanites; in the gushing 
of the water from the rock, and in the provision by 
which a sight of the brazen serpent brought rescue 
from death. These last events so deeply impressed St. 
John and St. Paul that in the New Testament the 
smitten rock (1 Cor. 10:4) and the brazen serpent 
(Jo. 3:14, 15) become types of the relationship of 
the Redeemer to men. 

When we compare the Israel that crossed the Red 
Sea, under Moses, with the Israel that crossed the Jor- 
dan, under Joshua, we see a vast progress in the ele- 
ments that make for individual and national charac- 
ter. The self-revelation, the purification, the knowl- 
edge of God and trust in Him that came from the ex- 
periences of those long years are the factors that 
wrought the change. The benefit was worth all it 
cost. 



Chapter 13. Review of Chapters 1-12 43 



CHAPTER XIII. 

REVIEW OF CHAPTERS I -12. 

Several commanding truths emerge from the back- 
ground of the vast historic process which stretches 
from the creation of the world to the eve of the con- 
quest of Canaan by the Chosen People. 

One of these, which is unmistakable even to the 
most cursory reader of the narrative, is that the his- 
toric movement is divinely controlled to the fulfilment 
of a dominant purpose. Broadly stated, that purpose 
is the evolution of a nation that shall bear witness 
in its constitution, its ideals and its influence in the 
world to the sovereignty and character of God. In the 
preceding chapters we have traced step by step the 
accomplishment of this purpose. At the beginning we 
have the choice of 
the stock, by a 
process of pro- 
gressive elimina- 
tion. The stock of 
Abel is chosen, 
then that of Noah, 
then that of Shem. 
At last from the 
Semitic race there 
is a selection. The 
great personality of 

Ai i The Sphinx and the Great Pyramid. 

Abraham emerges. F J 

The Abrahamic stock develops, like the trunk of a tree, 
in the careers of his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob, 
and the life of Jacob expands, like the trunk into 
branches, into "the children of Israel" — the nucleus of 
the future nation. From this point the divine action is 
not so immediate. The purpose is accomplished by the 
providential control of events, in which the human will 
is allowed free play. The selling of Joseph as a slave 




44 Old Testament History 

resulted in bringing the family of Jacob into Egypt, 
where the stock had the most favorable opportunities 
for development in the environment of a high civiliza- 
tion. The oppression of the Egyptians, which did not 
take place for several centuries, weaned the people from 
the land in which at one time it seemed as if they 
were permanently fixed. A remarkable combination 
of events gave the Israelites in Moses the best 
equipped leader that could be imagined. The very de- 
fects and weaknesses of the people were overruled to 
impart the self-control, the sense of loyalty, the faculty 
of co-operation and above all the faith in Jehovah, 
which fitted them to enter upon their heritage in 
Canaan. 

We see here only what impresses the historical 
student who undertakes the survey of any extended 
period — the providential factor, through which events 
conspire to an end, but in this record it is writ large. 
It thrusts itself upon us. We cannot escape it. 
Through the will of man the will of God was ac- 
complished. 

Another salient teaching of this study is that the 
revelation of spiritual truths was progressive. We 
lack the materials for a correct appraisement of the 
spiritual conceptions current in the world before Abra- 
ham, or, for that matter, in the patriarchal period. 
What we do know leads us to suppose that the moral 
and religious ideas of these periods were rudimen- 
tary. The idea of human sacrifice, for example, does 
not seem to have shocked the moral nature of Abra- 
ham, though it tortured his human affection. It 
seems to be reasonable to suppose that the Israelites 
largely shared the religious conceptions of the Egyp- 
tians. At least, it is hardly possible that they were not 
influenced by themL But almost at once after the exo- 
dus the people under Moses received the Decalogue 
and the "Book of the Covenant" (Ex. 20:22 — 
2 3 : 33)- It is quite impossible for us to exaggerate 
the advance this revelation made over the current 



Chapter 13. Review of Chapters 1-12 45 

ethical and religious ideas of the ancient world. Even 
the Christian revelation has not superseded the fun- 
damental ideas of these codes. But Israel's apprecia- 
tion of the significance of its own law was a matter 
of slow growth. Some of our best insights come 
through experience and events. It was so with Israel. 
The judgments and deliverances of God were par- 
ables, and through them the people as a whole came 
to nobler apprehensions of the character of God and 
of their duties toward Him and toward one another. 
When the Israelites entered Canaan some of their 
spiritual conceptions were still crude. They were to 
be expanded and purified by the magnificent min- 
istry of the prophets, but the light had been increas- 
ing ever since the people of Israel left Egypt. The 
religious conceptions of the hosts marshalled under 
Joshua were far in advance of the ideas that ruled 
the people who left Egypt under Moses. 

Still further, the history of this whole period affords 
an inspiring illustration of the fashioning of national 
character. Already, at the entrance upon Canaan, in 
the midst of shifting lights and confused forms the 
image of the typical Israel is beginning to emerge. 
The forces that produce national character are essen- 
tially identical in every age, but here we see them 
in distinct, broad outline. First we have the good 
stock — the sound heredity, then the providential 
guidance, by which even the most untoward events 
are overruled to the service of the nation; then the 
spiritual illumination that lifts life to a new level by 
its worthier conception of God and of the relations 
of men to one another; then the experiences that ver- 
ify and interpret the revelation and test and purify 
character. And behind and above all is the purpose 
of the Most High to realize the ideals of righteous- 
ness in the life of this people. 

By such forces and processes God was fashioning 
Israel. Judging by later events we may be tempted 
to say that the great work was a failure, but we 



46 Old Testament History 

do well always to remember that this nation, thus 
formed and compacted, has given the race many of its 
noblest spiritual ideals and impulses, and from this 
people there came, in the fulness of time, the Re- 
deemer. 



Chapter 14. Discipline in Righteousness 47 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE DISCIPLINE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
Num. 21 : 10—24 : 25; ch. 32; Deut. ch. 34. 

The Israelites found that the spirit of courageous 
trust in God was honored by the victory over the 
Amorites (Num. 21 : 2i-25)and the overthrow of Og, 
king of Bashan (Num. 21: 33~35). In the narrative 
which describes what took place between these tri- 
umphs and the crossing of the Jordan, we find a large 
variety of events, but the fact that reduces them to 
unity, and makes them illustrate a single great princi- 
ple is that, in this victorious march from the wilder- 
ness to Canaan, God was constantly teaching the 
Israelites, by the vivid instruction of events, that He 
was not only holy, but that He demanded righteous- 
ness in His people. 

It is not clear whether or not the episode of Balaam 
was known to the Israelites at the time it occurred. 
The transaction took place among their enemies, but 
they soon learned about it, and it became a part of 
their national history. The inconsistencies of Balaam's 
character throw a light into some of the darkest recess- 
es of human nature. He was a man of intellectual and 
spiritual discernment. He saw the moral beauty of 
righteousness, but he wished to get the rewards of 
iniquity, while persuading himself that he had escaped 
its guilt. When he discovered that he could not ca- 
jole the Most High, he appears to have set himself 
deliberately to corrupt the Israelites by idolatrous wor- 
ship and practices, so that a righteous God could not 
bless them, and the desire of Balak might be fulfilled 
(Num. 31: 16; Rev. 2: 4). It is no accident that 
three of the most discriminating preachers the Eng- 
lish-speaking world has produced — Bishop Butler, 
John Henry Newman, and Frederick W. Robertson — 
should have based great sermons upon this perplexing 



48 Old Testament History 

and fascinating incident in Hebrew history, that so 
clearly illustrates the deceitfulness of the human 
heart, and the folly of tampering with wickedness. 

If the Israelites began to imagine that they could 
presume that Jehovah, who had given them great vic- 
tories, would be tolerant of evil in them, they were 
taught a startling lesson in the destruction of those 
who had been engaged in the idolatries of the Moab- 
ites (Num. 25: 5, 9). The judgment upon the wor- 
shipers of the golden calf (Ex. 32: 28) and upon 
Korah and his companions (Num. 16: 32) was not 
more terrible. The lesson penetrated into the very 
centers of conscious life that, though God was on their 
side against their enemies, and though He was lead- 
ing them into a splendid inheritance, He would 
scourge them with whips of scorpions if they proved 
unfaithful to His demand for purity of life. 

A similar lesson was taught in the direction to de- 
stroy the Midianites utterly. This command, and the 
similar injunction respecting the Canaanites, are con- 
stantly cited to discredit the morality of the Scriptures, 
but they should be interpreted in the light of a similar 
judgment upon Israel herself (Num. 25: 5), and in 
the light of the similar reason for both judgments 
(Num. 25: 3, 16-18). The destruction of these tribes 
was not simply that the ground might be cleared for 
its occupation by the Israelites. Modern investiga- 
tions amply corroborate the statements of the Scrip- 
tures that Canaan had become a moral plague spot 
of the world. Wherever the influence of the Canaan- 
ites penetrated it was a moral miasma. We do not 
know how much of the higher civilization of the world 
was conserved and promoted by these awful judicial 
acts of stamping out a pest that was contaminating 
t'he race. Strangely enough, these frightful wars did 
not make Israel cruel. The reason was that the He- 
brews saw in these terrible commands the witness of 
Jehovah against the sins of the land. 

And the great truth that co-ordinates these events 



Chapter 14. Discipline in Righteousness 49 



finds complete illustration and enforcement in the 
death of Moses before he entered the land of prom- 
ise. Is there a more moving incident in the whole 




Mount Nebo. 

range of human history than the story of that great 
disappointment ? He had lived and walked with God ; 
he had consecrated the most splendid gifts to the ser- 
vice of God; he had undergone labors and cares that 
tax the imagination ; he loved the people ; he loved the 
good, great cause, but, in a moment of exasperation, 
he had lost sight of the fact that the power through 
which he had wrought was not his own (Num. 20: 
10), and for that he was not suffered to see the con- 
summation of his labors and of his hopes. It was 
not for him to lead the triumphant hosts of Israel 
into the land of promise (Num. 20: 12). The su- 
preme earthly reward of all those toils was withheld 
because of that self-sufficient moment in which he for- 
got his relationship to the Most High. Could there 
possibly be a more impressive illustration of the de- 
mand of Jehovah for conformity to the highest ideals 
involved in His own character and in His relationship 
to men? 

God's demand for righteousness — the righteousness 
without a stain or fleck, the righteousness that answers 
to His own character — was enforced by the career of 
Balaam, by the judgment upon Israel for her idolatry, 
by the terrible destruction of the Midianites, but most 
of all, perhaps, in the disappointment of Moses. 



50 



Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE TRIUMPHS OF FAITH. 
Josh. chs. 1-6. 

Dean Stanley lacked his usual felicity in character- 
ization when he said that the story of the conquest of 
Canaan is "the most secular part of Old Testament 
history." The implication that the narrative leaves 
God out of account, and moves wholly in the realm of 
the material is certainly not borne out by the facts. 
Indeed, there are few passages in the Scriptures that 
illustrate more graphically the nature and the rewards 
of faith. 




The Jordan River and Valley. 

Perhaps no attempt to define faith has been wholly 
successful, for faith is like vision, it must be expe- 
rienced to be apprehended. It would be impossible to 
describe sight to one born blind. Still, in a general 
way, we may say that faith is the human response to 
God and loyalty to the convictions that response gen- 
erates. 

Such faith, this history shows us, is the basis of 
courage. Over and over again God enjoins upon 
Joshua to "be strong and of good courage." He ap- 
peals to His servant to summon all his resources of 
manliness to resist the temptation of faint-heartedness. 
But you can no more make a man courageous by a 



Chapter 15. The Triumphs of Faith 51 

command than you can make him happy by telling him 
to be so. When, however, you put before him facts 
that elicit bravery or rejoicing, if his inner life re- 
sponds to them, he becomes inevitably courageous or 
happy. Jehovah did not expect that Joshua would be 
made courageous by a precept, and so He attaches to 
each command the consideration to which the life of 
His servant can respond. Joshua is assured that the 
land will be given to Israel ; that God will not fail or 
forsake him, and that He is working out a great pur- 
pose. Joshua's courage, therefore, was in proportion 
to his own response to the revelation of God. 

When we are told that we are not to rely upon our 
own strength but to trust in God, the meaning is not 
that human capacity and power are worthless, or that 
we are not to do our best, the meaning is that we are to 
keep ourselves in such relation with the revelation of 
God that it makes its normal impression on our souls, 
and invigorates every human power for the appointed 
work. 

And the spirit which is illustrated in Joshua char- 
acterized, in a good degree, the temper of the whole 
nation. There were many differences in coherence 
and discipline between the hosts of the exodus and the 
tribes that crossed the Jordan. Still, thirty-eight years 
before the Israelites were not so deficient in these qual- 
ities that they were totally unfit for the land of prom- 
ise. They might have entered upon their heritage then, 
had it not been for their dull and partial response to 
God. Now all that has changed. They believe in Je- 
hovah; they trust Him; they go forward across the 
river into that terrible land with stout hearts because 
they realize His presence. The dangers are just as 
great as those that led their fathers to turn back, but 
the children have a very different relationship to Je- 
hovah. The experiences of the wilderness and the 
victories over the Amorites and the Midianites have 
changed their whole attitude toward the great enter- 
prise. They are ready to enter upon the heritage. 



52 



Old Testament History 



The episode of Rahab illustrates the same truth in 
relation to the whole of character. Her deceit and 
treachery are not to be defended or palliated. They 
are in the same class as the tricks and frauds of Ja- 
cob. But, as in the case of Jacob, amid all this dross 
there was a noble quality in this woman's soul. Some- 
how she had come to believe that Jehovah was the 
true God, and that His purpose would triumph, and 
she was loyal to that response of her soul to the truth 
she had learned about Jehovah. That faith redeemed 
her ignorance and wickedness. Ultimately it must 
have transformed her soul, and her name has its place 
in the glorious muster roll of the heroes and heroines 
of faith (Heb. n: 31). 

It was this attitude of faith that God rewarded in 
the miracles of the Jordan and at Jericho. Want of 
faith had compelled the fathers of these men to pass 
their lives in the wilderness. Now, in response to the 
faith of the children, God made a highway through 
the turbulent Jordan and smote the walls of Jericho 
with His own hand. 




From "Glimpses of Bible Lands. 1 " 
Modern Jericho. 

We miss the finest point of this narrative if we think 
that because God opened the way for Israel by a mir- 
acle, and the days of miracle have passed, the history 
has no teaching for us. In a miracle God acts ac- 
cording to the same principles and for the same pur- 
poses that govern His action in His providence. In 



Chapter 15. The Triumphs of Faith 53 

the miracle we see the end, which is usually reached by 
a slow process, achieved at a stroke. Just as a tiny 
mirror held in the hand may reflect the distant land- 
scape and the glories of the heavens, the miracle re- 
flects in a single moment of time the principles and 
purposes that control the divine action in the vast 
realms of nature and human history. The miracle is 
the providence of ages condensed into a moment. 

The teaching, then, of these great deliverances and 
victories of Israel is that the resources of God are 
pledged to the fulfilment of His promises, and His 
promises are not only to be found in words that can 
be referred to by chapter and verse, they are also to 
be found in the hopes and aspirations that manifest 
the response of human hearts to His revelation. 



54 Old Testament History 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE WINNING OF CANAAN. 
Josh. chs. 7-11 ; Jud. 1 : 1—3 : 6. 

Jehovah promised that He would give Israel the 
land of Canaan, but He did not give it to them in the 
sense that it was theirs without an effort on their part. 
Though it was a gift, it was also to be won ; though 
it was a heritage, it was to be conquered. That is 
true of all the best gifts of God. They are not be- 
stowed upon men, as one would give a lad a coin, 
and all he had to do was to open his hand to receive 
it. They are given as one might give a boy an edu- 
cation. A father may give his son the opportunity 
of leisure, of books, and of instruction, but all these 
will be in vain unless the boy matches the opportunity 
by his studious effort. That explains the apparently 
inconsistent language of the Scriptures in regard to 
salvation itself. Sometimes it is represented as a gift 
to be taken; sometimes as a prize to be won. It is 
both, a gift to be taken by the efforts that match the 
gift. And the Christian may say with St. Paul, 
"Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift" (2 Cor. 
9: 15), while at the same time he says, "I press on 
toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of 
God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3: 14). Canaan was a 
gift to Israel, but Canaan had to be conquered. Je- 
hovah pledged Himself to the help of Israel, and 
promised that the people should not fail in their great 
undertaking, but that pledge and that promise did not 
take away from the Israelites the necessity of obedi- 
ence, of courage, and of the steadfast endurance of 
hardship. 

The outstanding teaching of the whole narrative is 
that those who would receive the blessings of God 
must do the will of God. It has been justly said that 
the speech of Joshua to the two and a half tribes, en- 



Chapter 16. The Winning of Canaan. 55 

joining them to love Jehovah, to walk in all His ways, 
to keep His commandments and to cleave to Him and 
to serve Him with all the heart and soul (Josh. 22: 5), 
is the key to the whole book of Joshua. 

This truth receives dramatic enforcement in the 
evil that the greed and deceit of Achan brought upon 
the Israelites before Ai, and in the stoning of Achan 
(Josh. 7:5, 16-26). The teaching of that incident 
is not that one evil-doer in a nation, a church, or in 
a company of good men will necessarily bring down 
the divine wrath upon the whole group to which he 
belongs. A wicked man has no such dreadful power 
as that over the welfare of the good mien with whom 
he may be associated. It is not within the power of 
a thief and traitor, like Judas in the band of the apos- 
tles, to bring to naught their work. The incident of 
Achan must be judged by itself. The command of the 
Lord had been broken secretly. Jehovah chose to 
bring the evil to light by a startling and an unaccount- 
able defeat, that at once provoked inquiry as to wheth- 
er there had been disobedience in the camp. And yet, 
while we know that the evil visited upon Israel was 
principally an intense object lesson as to the results 
of disobedience, and did not disclose a universal prin- 
ciple of the divine government, the incident brought 
home to Israel, as it does to us, the far-reaching evil 
that may be. wrought by the sin of an individual, even 
though the sinful act is largely concealed. There is a 
moral as well as a physical miasma. Israel learned 
at Ai that if Canaan was to be won it must be through 
obedience to God rather than by force of arms. It 
became an impossible task to persuade the mosi en- 
lightened men in Israel that God was on the side of 
the heaviest battalions. It was burned into the con- 
sciousness of the nation by such experiences as that 
at Ai, that the weight of battalions afforded no test 
whatever of the sympathies of Jehovah. He could 
save by many or by few (1 Sam. 14: 6). 

The same truth, that, though Canaan is a gift, it 



56 Old Testament History 

must be won by obedience, is illustrated in the partial 
possession of the land because of partial obedience 
(Jud. 2:2, 3). The command to make no league 
with the inhabitants and to hew down their altars 
was largely disregarded. The conquest, not through 
sympathy, but through greed and fear, was not pushed 
and made thorough. The Canaanites remained 
through many centuries to plague the Israelites and 
corrupt the most temptable. It is said, indeed, that the 
presence of the Canaanites afforded Israel an oppor- 
tunity to demonstrate their loyalty to Jehovah (Jud. 
2: 21, 22) and to discipline them in war (Jud. 3: I, 
2). There are few evils that do not involve inciden- 
tal benefits. A great conflagration elicits the heroism 
of the firemen. A San Francisco earthquake demon- 
strates the sympathies of the world. But such catas- 
trophies were not necessary to manifest these virtues. 
The gain is as nothing in comparison with the loss. On 
the low level of a partial possession of its heritage 
Israel might survive, but Israel's partial obedience shut 
the nation for centuries out of the full heritage, just 
as the lack of faith at Kadesh-barnea had shut an 
earlier generation for forty years out of its proper 
work and triumph. 

The truth that underlies and gleams through these 
narratives, like the precious metal in the rocky strata, 
is one of perpetual significance. The choicest gifts of 
God are not thrust upon men. He promises great 
blessings and a great heritage, but men must respond 
to them, in order to receive them, as a lad must re- 
spond by mental application to the opportunity to 
gain an education. And the response of man to 
God's gift is the obedience to God that springs from 
faith in Him. 



Chapter 17. The Hand of God in History 57 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE HAND OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

Jud. 3 : 7—12 : 7. 

Just as we may study the essential principles of phy- 
siology to the best advantage by examining the sim- 
plest organisms, so we may see the methods of the 
divine government clearly revealed in the primitive 
conditions set forth in such a narrative as this. What, 
then, does this record indicate as to God's way of deal- 
ing with men? 

First of all, it shows the existence of a real, though 
often imperceptible, link between sin and its penalty. 
The first two verses of the passage we are examining 
are typical of the teaching of the book of Judges: 
"And the children of Israel did that which was evil 
in the sight of Jehovah, and forgat Jehovah their 
God, and served the Baalim and the Asheroth. There- 
fore the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, 
and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim, 
king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel 
served Cushan-rishathaim eight years" (Jud. 3: 7, 8). 
This disobedience is repeated, and the bondage to 
Moab follows (Jud. 3: 12, 13). This disobedience is 
repeated a second time, and the bondage to Canaan 
follows (Jud. 4: 1, 2). It is repeated a third time, and 
the bondage to the Midianites follows (Jud. 6: 1, 2). 
It is repeated a fourth time, and the bondage to the 
Philistines and the Ammonites follows (Jud. 10: 6-9). 
As surely as Israel followed strange gods, she became 
a prey to the peoples whose gods she worshiped. 

Many of the penalties of sin come through natural 
causation. The results of intemperance, for example, 
are well known. But some of the penalties of sin may 
be quite different from the inevitable results of the 
evil act. In the case of Israel, what was the link that 
bound idolatry and captivity so inexorably together? 



58 Old Testament History 

Why did bowing the knee to Baal make the Israelites 
lose their courage and skill in war so that they be- 
came an easy prey to their enemies? That is a ques- 
tion that we can only answer by seeing that in the 
providential government of the world God visits upon 
sin penalties quite apart from' the inevitable result of 
the evil deeds. When Abimelech fell by the mill- 
stone, cast by the hand of a woman, the writer of the 
book of Judges saw a relationship between that and 
Abimelech's crime of three years before. The rela- 
tionship is not in the realm of natural causation, but 
in the realm of providence. "Thus God requited the 
wickedness of Abimelech ... in slaying his sev- 
enty brethren" (Jud. 9: 56). 

The sons of Jacob could not trace the connection 
between their own cruelty to Joseph and the evil case 
in which they found themselves in Egypt, but they 
did not doubt that there was such a connection. "And 
they said one to another, We are verily guilty con- 
cerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of 
his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear ; 
therefore is this distress come upon us" (Gen. 42: 21). 
Our Lord cautions us against regarding all the evils 
that befall men as the providential sequences of pe- 
culiar sins (Lu. 13: 2; Jo. 9:3), but His great teach- 
ing of the universal providence of God gives explicit 
warrant to the representation that the link between 
the idolatries of Israel and the successive captivities 
- — and the link between many sins and their penalties — 
is to be found in the providential government of the 
world. 

Again, these records reveal unmistakably the long- 
suffering and the mercy of God. In the description 
of each one of this series of disobediences and captiv- 
ities it is said or implied that, though "the anger of 
Jehovah was kindled against Israel" (Jud. 3:8), 
when the people cried unto Him, He heard them and 
sent them deliverance. Several of the psalms show 
the impression that these events made upon a later 



Chapter 17. The Hand of God in History 59 



generation. In the one hundred and sixth psalm we 
find this noble generalization of all the history covered 
by this period; 

"Many times did he deliver them; 
But they were rebellious in their counsel, 
And were brought low in their iniquity. 
Nevertheless he regarded their distress, 
When he heard their cry: 
And he remembered for them his covenant, 
And repented according to the multitude of 
his lovingkindnesses." 

Israel's confidence in the mercy of Jehovah was not 
an inference from an abstract definition of God; it 
sprang from a knowledge of her own history. The 
glorious outburst, which still thrills our souls, was the 
outcome of a vital experience: 

"He made known his ways unto Moses, 
His doings unto the children of Israel. 
Jehovah is merciful and gracious, 
. Slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, 

He hath not dealt with us after our sins, 
Nor rewarded us after our iniquities." Ps. 103:7, 
8, 10. 

And we cannot miss seeing in these records that 
Jehovah works out the deliverances of Israel through 
a chosen individual. Othniel saves Israel from the 
captivity of Mesopotamia (Jud. 3: 9) ; Ehud from 




Gideon's Fountain. 



that of Moab (Jud. 3: 15); Deborah and Barak 
from that of Canaan (Jud. chs. 4, 5) ; Gideon 
from that of Midian (Jud. chs. 6-8), and Jephthah 



60 Old Testament History 

from that of Ammon (Jud. ch. n). As the writer 
says : "When the children of Israel cried unto Jehovah, 
Jehovah raised up a saviour to the children of Israel" 
(Jud. 3:9). The supreme gift of God to men is a 
great personality. The forces resident in one human 
soul may change the entire outlook of a nation, and 
contradict the shrewdest forecasts. 

The providential character of these deliverers is not 
weakened by the account of some of their deeds of 
which we cannot approve. We are not called upon 
to apologize for or to defend the duplicity of Ehud; 
the treachery of Jael; the cruelties of Gideon, or the 
misguided fidelity of Jephthah. They lived in times of 
relative moral darkness. We do well if we are as true 
to the light we have as they were to the light they 
had. With superb insight the writer of the epistle 
to the Hebrews selects the only quality in men that 
is open to universal imitation — faith (Heb. 13; 7). 
The deed may be condemned in the light of higher 
ideals, while the faith that prompted the deed remains 
eternally worthy. 

Through all this record there runs a line of light- 
God is in history. The sequences of sin are not mere- 
ly natural, they are providential— the will of a per- 
sonal God forges many a link we cannot see. At the 
same time deliverance from these sequences is whollv 
in the hand of God, who is "plenteous in mercy"; and 
the deliverance is wrought by the means most entirely 
beyond human forecast, the coming into the world of a 
human personality endowed for the specific task. 



Chapter 18. Overthrow and Redemption 6 1 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

OVERTHROW AND REDEMPTION. 

1 Sam. 1 : 1—7 : 2. 

Various forces led to the period of weakness and 
degradation that coincides with the judgeship of Eli. 
The central cause of this degeneration, however, was 
not physical but moral. It was Israel's failure in loy- 
alty to Jehovah. From this root sprang the toleration 
of the Canaanites, whose presence in the land was a 
perpetual source of corruption ; from this root sprang 
the iniquities of Benjamin that led to such fierce ven- 
geance by the rest of Israel that the tribe was well 
nigh exterminated (Jud. chs. 19-21) ; from this root 
sprang the jealousies between Gad and Ephraim that 
so weakened the latter that effective resistance to the 
'Philistines on the west of the Jordan ceased, and the 




From a photograph. 



Hill and Ruins at Shiloh. 



national sanctuary at Shiloh lost its prestige and au- 
thority. The climax of this deterioration was reached 
in the conduct of the sons of Eli. This conduct was 
an example in high places of the original disloyalty of 
the people to Jehovah, and, like previous infidelities 
to Him, it registered itself in material overthrow (1 
Sam. 4: 1-18). The most important sequences of mor- 
al defect are not physical and material, striking and 



62 Old Testament History 

terrible as these often are, but they are moral and spir- 
itual, and these in turn propagate physical and material 
results, until the whole vicious series of moral and 
physical causes and effects terminates in total ruin 
(Jas. i: 15). 

This narrative puts into sharp contrast the potent 
agencies of national deterioration and of national re- 
demption. The agency of national deterioration was 
weak and evil men in high places. Up to this time 
Israel had been spared this last calamity. Her rulers 
had not been perfect, but, for the most part, they had 
been men of force and of character. There is not much 
to choose between a weak man and a bad man in a 
place of authority and influence, for the weak man is 
pretty certain to open the way for the wicked man. 
Eli was not an evil man, but he was feeble. He did 
not do evil or approve of it, but "his sons did bring 
a curse upon themselves, and he restrained them, not" 
(1 Sam. 3 : 13), since parental indulgence was stronger 
with him than the honor of Jehovah (1 Sam. 2: 29). 

It is hardly possible to exaggerate this calamity. An 
Achan in the camp may work much mischief, but usual- 
ly the power of the private individual to do harm is 
small compared with that of rulers and of recognized 
moral leaders. In the case of the authorized leader the 
whole weight of his official and representative charac- 
ter attaches to his conduct, and with many persons 
whatever he does carries with it an enormous presump- 
tion in its favor. To criticise or antagonize this looks 
in their eyes like disloyalty to constituted authority. 
Discriminating students of French history declare that 
one of the most grievous episodes in the life of that 
noble and gifted people was the rule of Catherine de 
Medici and of her sons. The effects of that carnival 
of vice have not been eradicated in three and a half 
centuries. Israel could be visited with no worse 
plague than that of the weak Eli and his wicked sons. 

And the converse is true. A better gift to a nation 
than the wealth of harvests or of mines is that of rul- 



Chapter 18. Overthrow and Redemption 63 

ers who are "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, 
hating unjust gain" (Ex. 18: 21). No wonder that 
among the last words of David, who had an almost 
unrivaled experience of life, was his praise of the good 
prince : 

"One that ruleth over men righteously, 

That ruleth in the fear of God, 
He shall be as the light of the morning, when 

the sun riseth, 
A morning without clouds, 
When the tender grass springeth out of the 

earth, 
Through clear shining after rain." 

2 Sam. 23 : 3, 4. 

This narrative also discloses the agency of rederrn> 
tion — the gift to the people of a pure, gifted, devoted 
personality. In the midst of all the corruption and 
overthrow of the later years of Eli there is some good 
in Israel from which the force for a better life is to 
spring. It is a mistake to pass universal condemna- 
tion upon even the worst period of history. In no 
age has God been without true witnesses. Good has 
never been wholly stamped out. In the days of Elijah 
there were still seven thousand who had not bowed the 
knee to Baal ( 1 Ki. 19 : 18) . In the midst of the seeth- 
ing corruption of Athenian life Sophocles drew the 
picture of that unsurpassed woman, Antigone. In 
the heart of the vices of imperial Rome there was tlie 
household of Pliny. Among all the excesses of the 
Valois rule we recall Coligni's last letter to his wife, 
and many a lovely Huguenot home. So in the midst 
of all the degradation and riot of the period of Eli 
we have Elkanah and Hannah and the charming idyl 
of the child Samuel. To use Isaiah's figure, it 
was from this holy "remnant" of Israel that there 
sprang the redemptive force of the life of Samuel. As 
we see so often in this history, the best gift of God 
to Israel is the gift of a man. When Samuel appears 
the real life of Israel responds to his voice. There is 
that in him which touches something deeper in the 
soul of the nation than its disloyalties, and the better 



64 Old Testament History 

nature of Israel again asserts itself and becomes as- 
cendant. It is no wonder that the prophets saw in 
these partial redemptions of Israel through God's gift 
of a man the promise of the Messiah. 



Chapter 19. The New Epoch for Israel 65 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE NEW EPOCH FOR ISRAEL. 
1 Sam. 7 : 3—10 : 16. 

The character of Samuel emerges from the dark and 
troublous times of the judges as the one hopeful in- 
dication in the life of the nation. His career marks 
a new epoch with such distinctness that later writers 
associated his work even with that of Moses. Jere- 
miah represents Jehovah as putting Samuel in the 
same rank as Moses: 'Then said Jehovah unto me, 
Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my 
mind would not be toward this people" (Jer. 15: 1). 
We are now to look at the principal features that 
marked the inception of the new era. 




Ramah, the Home of Samuel. 

First there was the fresh and vital appeal of Sam- 
uel to the moral consciousness of Israel. Things 
were in a desperate way. The dominance of the Phil- 
istines in Canaan was almost complete. Doubtless the 
so-called "practical" man could have suggested much 
more sensible expedients for rallying the people to 
hold their own against the Philistines than preaching 
and prayer and a renewal of allegiance to Jehovah. 
He would have said that what Israel needed was a 
compromise of differences between the tribes, better 
shields and spears and bows and a more rigorous mil- 



66 Old Testament History 

itary drill. But Samuel, with his profound insight 
into the facts of human nature and the order of the 
divine government, saw that the main cause of the de- 
cline in national vigor and success was moral, and 
that any real change must come from a quickened 
zeal for righteousness. He saw that the great need 
was for the tribes to rise above their sectional quar- 
rels through a new devotion to Jehovah (i Sam. 
7:6), and to go forth against their enemies with a 
new confidence in Him (1 Sam. 7:10). A watch- 
word of our time is "the man behind the gun." Sam- 
uel did not use that phrase, but he emphasized that 
idea. He saw that the root difficulty with the na- 
tion was not physical or material but moral and spir- 
itual. 

Samuel took a second important step in re-establish- 
ing the national vigor by founding the monarchy. 
The records give us two apparently conflicting repre- 
sentations as to the part of Samuel in this matter. 
On the one hand the impression is given that Sam- 
uel saw that the nation needed a visible central 
authority to save it from extinction, and that he was 
divinely instructed to adopt measures for the estab- 
lishment of a monarchy (1 Sam. 9: 16; comp. Deut. 
17: 14-20). On the other hand he is represented as 
holding that the demand for a king originated with 
the people, that this demand was an indication of na- 
tional distrust of Jehovah (1 Sam. 8: 4-10), and that 
Jehovah's instruction to him constituted a concession 
to Israel's spiritual incapacity. 

But perhaps these representations are not so irre- 
concilable as at first they appear to be. May it not 
be that the ideal government for Israel was the di- 
rect rule of Jehovah? Without a human king they 
had been delivered from Egypt and had established 
themselves in Canaan. While they had remained 
faithful to Jehovah they had been uniformly success- 
ful. Their failures were the result of their disloyalty. 
But now, for a long series of years, they had proved 



Chapter 19. The New Epoch for Israel 67 

that they were not equal to maintaining their national 
unity or vigor through fidelity to the unseen Jehovah. 
The direct rule of Jehovah was the ideal government 
for Israel, and it provided the conditions in which 
the nation would come to the noblest development, 
but, since the people lacked the spiritual insight and 
moral vigor to be loyal to an unseen King, the next 
best government was a human monarchy. And while 
Samuel deplored the failure of the nation to rise to 
its privilege, and saw the inevitable mischiefs of a 
monarchy (1 Sam. 8:10-19), he showed his magna- 
nimity and political foresight in inaugurating the best 
practicable policy. He became a principal factor in 
establishing the new regime (ch. 9). There was 
nothing sour, disagreeable or unduly critical in his at- 
titude toward it. He was the frank and cordial 
friend of the new king, and did everything he could 
to make his administration a success. 

From this point of view the narrative involves a 
weighty suggestion. For nations and for individuals 
there is always a best course. Following that, they 
will realize their noblest possibilities, making the most 
of themselves and of their opportunities, but it is 
very easy, especially by moral disloyalties, to fall, from 
that high level. And, after that, what is best is not 
what is ideally but what is practically best, that is, 
best in consideration of all the circumstances in which 
they find themselves involved. 

The tragedy of Israel was that she lost the capacity 
and opportunity of realizing her noblest possibilities, 
and that is the tragedy of most human lives, perhaps 
of our own. Once certain attainments and opportuni- 
ties were open to us. We were disloyal or indifferent 
to them, and there came a time when the door was 
shut ; and we had to make the best of what remained, 
and do the best we could in the circumstances ; but 
the very highest possibilities on the lower level did 
not match these which were originally ours, and from 
which our disloyalties shut us out. It is the old story 



68 



Old Testament History 



of Eden over again. Man may make the wilderness 
blossom like a garden, but the wilderness is not the 
garden in which he was originally placed. The privi- 
leges, the opportunities, the possibilities are not only 
different but lower. The rule of Saul and David and 
Solomon and the divided kingdom are the best things 
possible in the circumstances, but the circumstances 
might have been entirely different if Israel had been 
loyal to Jehovah. 

In this narrative, as in a mirror, we may see re- 
flected some of the deepest spiritual experiences of 
our own lives. 



Chapter 20. A Success that Fails 69 



CHAPTER XX. 
A SUCCESS THAT FAILS. 
1 Sam. 10 : 17—14 : 52. 

Emerson has somewhere said that there is no cause 
h so desperate but that the coming of the right man 
will make it a success. The truth of this is largely 
illustrated by the career of Saul, the first king of 
Israel. The narrative gives us a dark picture of the 
extent and thoroughness of the Philistine oppression 
(1 Sam. 13 117-23) at the period when Saul was 
chosen king. To Saul the kingship did not mean the 
enjoyment of the titles and privileges of royalty; it 
meant an opportunity for serving the people by lead- 
ing them to national independence. If, in the com- 
mon phrase of our day, Saul did not "make good" the 
nation would speedily find means of ridding itself of 
him and of his house. 

We should not suffer our recollection of the trag- 
edy of Saul's last years to obscure our appreciation 
of what he did for Israel. The results of many hard- 
fought campaigns are summarized in a few brief sen- 
tences of military directness. There is nothing in 
Caesar's "Commentaries" that surpasses the terse m- 
cisiveness of the account of what Saul did: "Now, 
when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he 
fought against all his enemies on every side, against 
Moab, and against all the children of Amman, and 
against Edom, and against the kings of Zobah, and 
against the" Philistines: and whithersoever he turned 
himself, he put them to the worse. And he did val- 
iantly, and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel 
out of the hands of them that despoiled them" (1 
Sam. 14 : 47,48). It seems as if these victories of Saul 
prepared the way for David's work. The final defeat 
of Saul at Mount Gilboa, of course, undid much of 
what he had accomplished, but not everything. The 



70 



Old Testament History 



nation had come to a good measure of self-respect 
and self-consciousness under the administration of 
Saul, and David addressed himself to a very different 
task than the one that had fallen to his predecessor. 

The factors in Saul's success are readily discerned. 
His physical endowments were of a high order. He 
had manly stature, strength and beauty; and these 
are not insignificant qualities in the leadership of 
men. His mental traits were equally impressive. He 
was brave, modest, sagacious, enterprising and pa- 
triotic. At the very outset of his career he showed 
insight and skill in eliciting and wielding the un- 
utilized forces of Israel (i Sam. 11:7, 8). His de- 
liverance of the people of Jabesh-gilead was a stroke 
of genius that won him the confidence of the whole 
nation (1 Sam. 11 19-11). This was followed by that 
bold stroke against the Philistines, in which Jonathan, 
the son of Saul, played such a daring and heroic part 
(1 Sam. 14:1-23). The result was that Jonathan 

was greatly endeared to 
the whole nation, and indi- 
rectly the house of Saul 
was strengthened. The 
series of victories over the 
other enemies of Israel 
seemed to justify most 
completely the establish- 
ment of the monarchy 
and the choice of Saul as 
king. 

What, now, was the de- 
fect in his character? 
What was "the rift within 
the lute"? It is a difficult 
but fascinating question. 
Still, thus early in his ca- 




From a photograph. 
The Ravine at Michmash. 



reer, there is some trustworthy and satisfactory mate- 
rial for a partial answer. Reading between the lines 



Chapter 20. A Success that Fails 71 

of the fourteenth chapter, which describes the battle 
of Michmash, we cannot miss seeing that the narra- 
tor subtly outlines two unhappy traits of Saul's char- 
acter. 

The vow of Saul, which wrought such disaster to 
Israel (1 Sam. 14: 24, 29), was peculiarly the act of 
a resolute and daring man, whose impulsiveness pre- 
vented him from thinking through a course of action, 
and making a calm estimate of its probable conse- 
quences. 

Saul's persistence in adhering to his rash vow,against 
all the dictates of humanity and paternal love, 
is thoroughly consistent with this type of character. 
A man of these qualities may be brilliant and effec- 
tive, but he is also dangerous. His persistence and 
steadiness manifest themselves at the wrong places, 
and he is peculiarly liable to substitute confidence in his 
own purpose for the dictates of reason and the direc- 
tion of God. 

The implied contrast between Saul and Jonathan in 
this same campaign emphasizes this trait of the king. 
Jonathan relies upon divine guidance, and has the 
splendid confidence that "there is no restraint to Je- 
hovah to save by many or by few" (1 Sam. 14: 6). 
Saul, indeed, consults Jehovah, but after the event, 
when he is in perplexity (1 Sam. 14: 37, 41). There 
seems to be no disposition on his part to put his whole 
plan, at the beginning, before it has been adopted, in- 
to the hands of Jehovah to be guided by Him. Saul 
represents the type of man who "leans to his own un- 
derstanding," but with whom the impulse of the mo- 
ment takes the place of an intelligent and persistent 
sense of duty. 

However we may interpret the later declaration 
that "the Spirit of Jehovah departed from Saul" (1 
Sam. 16: 14; 18: 12), it seems to indicate that Saul 
represents the type of man who is strong in purely 
human qualities, but whose life is not thoroughly re- 
sponsive to divine influences. "The way of man is 



72 Old Testament History 

not in himself ; it is not in man that walketh to direct 
his steps" (Jer. 10: 23). In the subsequent history we 
shall see the tragical consequences of this failure to re- 
spond to the manifest indications of the will and pur- 
pose of God. 






Chapter 21. Saul and David 73 



CHAPTER XXI. 

SAUL AND DAVID. 

1 Sam. chs. 15-31; 2 Sam. ch. 1. 

The inward defect of Saul's character was brought 
before us in our last study. It consists in a certain 
self-will and disregard of his dependence upon Je- 
hovah, until he was brought into a strait when his 
religion manifested itself in superstitution rather than 
in trust and obedience (1 Sam. 14:38; 18:15, 29; 

28:7). 

Defects of character always find circumstances to 
match and emphasize them. Arrows have a strange 
way of piercing the joints in the harness. Achilles was 
wounded in his heel. The circumstances of Saul's 
life elicited and brought into the foreground his pe- 
culiar weaknesses. The task to which he had been 
called was of baffling perplexity. Something more 
than human wisdom was needed for its successful ac- 
complishment. Saul does not seem to have recognized 
this. The situation demanded self-restraint, tact and 
audacity. These were not the qualities in which he was 
particularly strong, and when he did display any of 
them, it was at the wrong time. 

Goethe suggests that in Hamlet Shakespeare repre- 
sents the unbalancing of a noble mind because it was 
charged with a mission for which its specific powers 
were inadequate. In the career of king Saul we see 
precisely the same thing. Saul is not equal to the 
place in which he finds himself. He is conscious of 
the misadjustment between his capacities and his task. 
Self-distrust, and the disappointment of his own heart, 
of his friends and the nation corrode his inner life. 
Jealousy of a rising man is inevitable. Reflection 
breeds irresolution. The fine balance of reason is dis- 
turbed. 

Men are not to be timid when they are confronted 



74 Old Testament History. 

by great tasks and responsible positions, but there is no 
folly like that of seeking to do our duties, whether 
they are small or great, without a humble reliance 
upon divine direction and help. Though Saul was 
not so richly endowed as David, he might have filled 
the kingship satisfactorily if his attitude toward divine 
aid had been different. 

It is hardly possible to concieve of a more striking 
contrast between two careers than is presented in that 



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Bethlehem, David's Birthplace. 

of Saul and that of David. At first David does not fill 
the eye so completely as does Saul. He has not so 
much of the physical king about him. But he has all 
the strong and winning traits of a man who makes his 
way and is the master of the situation wherever he 
finds himself. He can speak to the heart of a woman 
(i Sam. 18: 28; 19: 12), and he had that indefinable 
quality of command and leadership by which he could 
assert his authority over a band of rough and desper- 
ate men (1 Sam. 22: 1, 2). He could soothe the dis- 
turbed mind of the king by his music (1 Sam. 16: 23), 
and at the same time win the highest praise for his 
valor (1 Sam. 18: 7). He could be hated by the fa- 
ther and yet retain the devoted love of the pure and 
chivalrous son. He could be ambitious, and at the 
same time absolutely loyal to the king. The picture 
the narrative summons before us is that of a marvel- 
ously strong and flexible nature. David has the pe- 



Chapter 21. Saul and David 



75 



culiar note of greatness that he can always act with 
his whole nature under the dominance of the specific 
quality which the occasion requires. He can throw his 
whole force and weight in a certain direction, and 
yet always be himself. 

And, even thus early in his career, there is an ele- 
vation and nobility of mood about him that are unmis- 
takable. His magnanimity, when he had the king com- 
pletely in his power, made a deep impression even upon 







From a photograph. 
The Wilderness of Judea. 
Where David hid from Saul. 

the troubled and clouded mind of Saul (1 Sam. 26: 
21.). His treatment of the men of Jabesh-gilead was 
an instance of extraordinarily fine feeling ( 2 Sam. 2 : 
5, 7). His lament for Saul and Jonathan rises far 
above the atmosphere of suspicion and intrigue and 
hate, into the clear air of noble and sympathetic ap- 
preciation ; while the elegy for Jonathan discloses a 
nature which is susceptible of the warmest personal at- 
tachment. 

There are great qualities in any man. David was one 
of those rare spirits equal to any emergency of hu- 
man life. Whatever the crisis you might be certain 
that he would acquit himself strongly and nobly. But 
the one quality that binds all these traits into unity 
and efficiency is the subtle but powerful uplift of his 
soul toward God. We feel it so as we read between the 
lines of the narrative; we become most keenly aware 



y6 Old Testament History 

of it when we interpret these early years in the light of 
their later fruitage. Even Saul, with his smaller en- 
dowments, might have succeeded had he not lacked this 
strange but real spiritual quality. 



Chapter 22. The Career of David 77 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE CAREER OF DAVID. 
2 Sam. chs. 2-12. 

The student who reads these ten chapters continu- 
ously will rise from his task with a deep impression 
as to the enormous service David rendered the Hebrew 
people in uniting the nation in sentiment and in enlarg- 
ing its borders. 

After the defeat of Saul at Mount Gilboa the out- 
look for the Israelites was dark, but perhaps it was 
not so desperate as sometimes it is represented to have 
been. One of the causes of Saul's overthrow was the 
want of co-operation between himself and David. The 
problem before David was to heal the breach between 
the house of Joseph and the house of Judah. 

It is an interesting investigation to trace step by step 
his success in doing this. David's prestige with the 
tribe of Judah, because of his personal prowess, his 
marriage with Abigail, who was exceedingly well con- 
nected, and his gifts to the elders of the tribe ( 1 Sam. 
30 : 26-31 ), made his coronation at Hebron an easy mat- 
ter as soon as he was free to return from his exile 
among the Philistines. But David's heart was set on 
greater things than being king of Judah. A series of 
fortuitous events advanced his purpose, but he was 
alert to take advantage of every opportunity, though 
patient enough, as Napoleon phrased it, "not to pluck 
the pear before it was ripe." 

The position of the northern tribes was perilous at 
the best, but the act of Abner in killing Asahel, the 
brother of Joab, though in self-defense, brought down 
on him the blood revenge of the stern captain of Judah 
(2 Sam. 3 : 27). This deprived the Benjamites of their 
military leader. Naturally the act of Joab would have 
embittered still further the relations of the two states, 
but David averted that result by his sympathy at the 



78 



Old Testament History 



grave of Abner, and his fasting in grief for the fallen 
prince (2 Sam. 3 : 31-38). The treachery of the two cao- 
tams of the kingdom of Saul in putting Ish-baali (Isfi- 
bosheth) to death, was an act that aroused the deepest 
indigation of David (2 Sam. 4: 5-12), but it made the 
easier the union of the two states. David's coronation 
at Hebron was not a mere formal act, it was accom- 
panied by a firm alliance of the tribes. 



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Hebron, where David was made King. 

To have brought about this national unity, not by ex- 
ternal pressure, but through a deeper realization by all 
the tribes of their common kinship and destiny, was a 
very great achievement on the part of David. Still, 
David, like Saul, did not hold his kinship by any stable 
prescriptive right. He had to vindicate his title by the 
success of his administration. He did this magnificent- 
ly. First of all he broke the Philistine supremacy over 
central Palestine (2 Sam. 5:17-25). Then, second, 
with the insight of a general and statesman, he saw 
the strategic importance of the fortress of Jebus, and 
the possibility of making it the centre of a new politi- 
cal and religious life. David's capture of this fortress, 
and the success of his policy in giving Jerusalem a dis- 
tinctive character, are among the foremost achieve- 
ments of human history (2 Sam. 5 : 6-9; ch. 6). And. 
third, David pushed the conquests of the nation so that 
Palestine became the actual possession of Israel. The 
wars against the Moabites (2 Sam. 8:2), against the 






1 



Chapter 22. The Career of David 79 

Ammonites (2 Sam,. 10: 1-14), against the Arameans 
(10: 15-19; 8:3-8), and against the Edomites (8: 13, 
1 4), so augmented the power of David, that even Ha- 
math became tributary. All Syria to the Euphrates 
owned the sway of David. Most fortunately for the 
success of these far reaching plans both Egypt and 
Assyria had been so weakened that they could not dis- 
pute the rise of this new and formidable state. 

It takes but a few sentences to outline this process, 
but its actual working out took the keenest eye and 
swiftest action to discern and grasp occasions; it re- 
quired the skilful utilization of intractable personali- 
ties, like that of Joab, and the power of appealing to 
the imagination of thousands of average men ; it took 
years of patient waiting, to be followed by rapid and 
decisive strokes. Into the great result there went 
anxieties and perils and address and courage: that make 
the career of David as full and as many-sided as any 
we can well imagine. 

Singularly enough it is difficult to detect in the whole 
record any marked indication of self-sufficiency or self- 
exaltation, and the dominant note in the psalms that 
can be attributed to him is that of dependence upon 
God. Indeed, the feature of David's character that is 
elicited by his great sin (2 Sam. ch. 11), is that in 
acknowledging his sin, and in his repentance, he recog- 
nized that his life was to be ruled by a higher law 
than his own caprice, or passion, or even his own judg- 
ment. According to Oriental ideas such a mighty king 
was subject to no rule but that of his own will. But 
David acknowledged God's right over him, and 
humbled himself before God's rebuke. 

Somehow David had a true and deep conception of 
his relationship to God. He saw that the Lord was his 
Shepherd (Ps. 23) ; that no good could come to him 
apart from God (Ps. 16: 1), and that the law of God 
was the supreme law of his life (Ps. 51 : 3, 4). Versar 
tile, skilful, and strong as David was, the secret of 
his success was that he was working out God's plans. 



8o Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE HOUSE OF DAVID. 

2 Sam. 13 : 1—20 : 22. 

In the light of the Christian revelation we cannot 
say that the sufferings and troubles of men always 
spring out of their evil deeds (Lu. 13:4; Jo. 9:3). 
Such interpretations of events as the Israelites made 
when they attributed the three years' drought to the 
circumstance that Saul's wrong to the Gibeonites had 
not been avenged (2 Sam. 21: 1-7), are not possible 
to-day. And yet, after we have made every allowance 
for the inscrutable mystery of some sufferings, it re- 
mains true that we easily see the genetic relationship 
between many of the sorrows and troubles of men and 
their sins. 

"For sorrow tracketh wrong, 
As echo followeth song." 

The record of David's reign sets this truth in the 
clear light of history. The sensuality of David re- 
appeared in his eldest son, Amnon. Strangely 
enough, David's anger simply expressed itself in words, 
but the outrage to his sister rankled in the heart ot 
Absalom, and led him to a bitter revenge. The rein- 
statement of Absalom in the king's favor, before he 
had given any sign of repentance, shows a singular 
weakness on the part of David. It was as though he 
saw in the unfolding tragedy in his own household the 
reflection of his own sin, and he was nerveless to pun- 
ish the evil-doers, or to arrest the evolution of wicked- 
ness. Undoubtedly this early alienation of Absalom 
toward his father's house played a prominent part in 
the birth and growth of his purpose to supplant his 
father. The plot of Absalom to seize the throne shook 
David's power to its center. The great king became 
an object of the ribaldry of the worthless Shimei 
(2 Sam. 16:7). It seemed for the moment as if the 



Chapter 23. The House of David 



81 




cause of David were hopeless and is was only the 
fidelity of the Philistine guards (2 Sam. 15:18-22), 
the craft of Hushai (2 Sam. 15 : 32-37), and the mili- 
tary capacity of Joab and 
the veteran captains that 
saved the day (2 Sam. 18: 
1-7). Even as it was, the 
revolt led to the slaughter 
of Absalom — a result that 
was only less terrible to 
David than his own over- 
throw. For in some way 
this beautiful and wild 
youth had greatly endeared 
himself to his father. No 
one can read David's la- 
ment for his wayward son 
without hearing in it the 
throb of a breaking heart 
(2 Sam* 18:33). 
The rebellion of the ten 

. -i 1 • 1 1 1, ,1 Although Absalom was not buried 

tribes, Which dealt the pOW- here (2 Sam. 18 :17), the Jews to this 

r -r>k • j day show their hatred of him by ston- 

er 01 David even a more ing the tomb that bears his name 

Staggering blow (2 Sam. whenever passing by it. 

19:40 — 20:22), was the direct outcome of the earlier 
revolt, which had sown jealousies and revealed weak- 
nesses that an ambitious man like Sheba (2 Sam. 20: 1, 
2) was alert to turn to his profit. Thus, with almost 
the inexorableness of a classic Greek tragedy, the ter- 
rible sequences of sin unfold themselves, linked by the 
subtile and mighty bonds of moral and providential 
forces. 

This teaching is made still more impressive when 
we reflect that the undoubted excellencies of David's 
character did not operate to avert the development of 
these troubles and sufferings. We are quite apt to 
interpret human life in the terms of book-keeping. We 
think that if we strike a balance between a man's vir- 
tues and his sins, and the balance is on the right side, 



So-called Tomb of Absalom.in the 
Fidron Valley near Jerusalem. 



82 Old Testament History 

he must be called a good man, entitled to the rewards 
of goodness. But good and evil do not neutralize 
each other in that easy fashion. On many sides of his 
character David was one of the best of men, in other 
aspects he was weak and low — and we may say this 
without forgetting that he is not to be judged by our 
standards. The strength of David did not avert the 
evil sequences of his weakness. Both the good and the 
evil in him produced their appropriate fruitage. We 
deceive ourselves when we imagine that our excel- 
lencies will counteract our defects and avert their evil 
results. Any evil fostered in the heart is like the germs 
of a disease, which develops according to its own law. 
No matter how good we are we cannot afford to toler- 
ate any evil in our lives. 

And yet David is characterized as "a man after Je- 
hovah's own heart." Thomas Carlyle, in a famous 
passage in " Heroes and Hero Worship/' has given the 
best exposition of that saying. He says : 

"On the whole, we make too much of faults; the details of 
the business hide the real center of it. Faults? The greatest 
of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. Readers 
of the Bible above all, one would think, might know better. 
Who is called there 'the man according to God's own heart'? 
David, the Hebrew king, had fallen into sins enough; blackest 
crimes; there was no want of sins. And thereupon the unbe- 
lievers sneer and ask, Is this your man according to God's 
heart? The sneer, I must say, seems to me but a shallow 
one. What are faults, what are the outward details of a life; 
if the inner secret of it, the remorse, temptations, true, often- 
baffled, never-ended struggle of it, be forgotten? 'It is not in 
man that walketh to direct his steps.' Of all acts, is not, for a 
man, repentance the most divine? The deadliest sin, I say, 
were that same supercilious consciousness of no sin — that is 
death; the heart so conscious is divorced from sincerity, hu- 
mility and fact; is dead; it is 'pure' as dead dry sand is pure. 
David's life and history, as written for us in those Psalms 
of his, I consider to be the truest emblem ever given of a 
man's moral progress and warfare here below. All earnest 
souls will ever discern in it the faithful struggle of an earnest 
human soul towards what is good and best." — (The Hero as 
Prophet.) 

We may add to this the remark of an eminent min- 
ister to Charles Sumner, when the statesman raised 
some objection to the declaration that David was a 



Chapter 23. The House of David 83 

man after God's heart: "Mr. Sumner, the Bible does 
not say that David was an angel after God's heart, but 
a man, a man, with a man's limitations and failures 
and defeats. David was a man after God's heart." 



84 Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE INHERITANCE OF SOLOMON. 
1 Ki. chs. 1-8. 

If ever a man could be said to have been "born 
with a silver spoon in his mouth," it was Solomon, the 
son of David. Everything" went his way. He is typi- 
cal of that class of men who by birth or circumstances 
come to great place, but who would have held only 
respectable or ordinary positions had it not been for 
the accidents of fortune. We often say that every 
man is the architect of his own fortune, but it is not 
true that every man who occupies a great place has 
won it by his capacity. David was the sort of man 
who would have been eminent anywhere. It is exceed- 
ingly doubtful if the world would have heard much 
about Solomon if it had not been for a combination of 
circumstances with which he had almost nothing to do. 

To begin with, he gained the throne by the astute- 
ness of an intriguing and unscrupulous woman, assist- 
ed by Nathan the prophet. The succession to the 
throne of Israel was not hereditary under the rule of 
primogeniture. If that had been the fact, the claim 
of Adonijah would have been incontestable. Two ele- 
ments entered into the succession: the nomination of 
the reigning sovereign and the approval of the peo- 
ple. David set aside the claim of Adonijah in response 
to the appeal of Bath-sheba, his favorite wife, which 
was dexterously reinforced by Nathan, who had pri- 
vately arranged with the queen to appear before the 
king at an opportune moment (i Ki. 1:11-31). And 
we can hardly resist the suspicion that Bath-sheba 
was not reluctant to proffer the request to Solomon 
which led him to order the death of Adonijah, his 
elder half-brother, thus removing a possible rival to 
the throne (1 Ki. 2: 13-25). The whole narrative is 
redolent with Oriental intrigue, and Solomon, whose 



Chapter 24. The Inheritance of Solomon 85 

part in it is almost wholly passive, becomes the bene- 
ficiary of all its profits. 

Again, Solomon inherited all the prestige of his fa- 
ther's great work in harmonizing the conflicting inter- 
ests of the tribes, and building up a stable government 
out of disorganized fragments. There is not the 
slightest indication that Solomon could have done what 
his father did. The hard, pioneer work was finished 
when Solomon succeeded to the throne. He came into 
a splendid heritage. There is, indeed, a certain large- 
ness and magnificence about the commercial plans of 
Solomon and about his projects for the internal de- 
velopment and embellishment of the kingdom. But 
it is very much easier for one who inherits large re- 
sources to inaugurate and prosecute great schemes 
than it is for one who must work with scanty means 
on narrow margins. 

Still further, even the great enterprise with which 
the name of Solomon is most closely associated — the 
building of the temple — was only in a very limited 
sense his work. The purpose seems to have been en- 




The Temple Area from the Mount of Olives. 
The mosque with the large dome stands on the site of Solomon's temple. 

tirely David's, who had prepared vast resources for 
this very work (1 Chron. 22: 14-17). Even the archi- 
tecture was not the product of Solomon's brain or di- 
rection, he simply carried out a plan that he had re- 
ceived from his father (1 Chron. 28:11-19). And 
when we scrutinize the quality of Solomon's wisdom in 



86 Old Testament History 

our next chapter we shall see that it is subject to some 
surprising discounts. 

Our Lord twice refers to Solomon, and in both al- 
lusions there is an undertone of rebuke to a popular 
estimate (Mt. 6:29; 12:42). It is difficult to outline 
all that was in the mind of Jesus when He thought 
of the king who, in the common thought, typified the 
height of Israel's glory. But we may well believe that 
He, with his exact insight into human values, judged 
him by His own principle: "To whomsoever much is 
given of him shall much be required; and to whom 
they commit much, of him will they ask the more" 
(Lu. 12:48). 

To the eye of Jesus there was no glamor about a 
great inherited position, or about the combinations of 
events which lift some men into high places. He was 
not deceived at all about the accidents of life. He 
looked at the real man, and He weighed the man as 
a man. Mr. Froude's graphic parable, "A Siding at 
a Railway Station" ("Short Stories on Great Sub- 
jects," vol. iv, pp. 352-370), is an admirable exposi- 
tion of the principle by which such a career as that 
of Solomon is to be appraised. Large inheritances, 
splendid advantages, noble privileges, do not constitute 
a title to greatness. Such a title does not come from 
our powers, but from the worthy use of them. Great 
endowments, instead of serving as an excuse for moral 
failure, bring their possessors under a more exacting 
law. 



Chapter 25. The Folly of Solomon 87 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE FOLLY OF SOLOMON. 
1 Ki. chs. 9-11. 

The greatly praised "wisdom" of Solomon was far 
more an intellectual than a moral quality. It very nearly 
corresponded to what we mean by the term 1 "insight." 
He was alert in apprehending the nature and elements 
of things and of problems, and was exceedingly shrewd 
in estimating men and the workings of human nature. 
But, if we call Solomon the wisest of men, we must 
also acknowledge that he was one of the most foolish ; 
for he was guilty of blunders and misjudgments that 
are almost incredible in one of his reputed sagacity. 

This consideration opens a difficult but fascinating 
series of questions. Why was it that Solomon, above 
all men, should have sought to enrich his kingdom by 
gross oppression? Why was it that he did not shun 
the religious and moral peril involved in his marriage 
alliances? Why was it that, after the evils of his 
policy were manifest to every eye, he persisted in a 
course that alienated himself and his kingdom from 
Jehovah, and threatened to endanger the fulfilment of 
Israel's mission to the world? 

The narrative does not leave us wholly in the dark 
as to the proper answer to such questions. 

For one thing, Solomon was singularly unappreci- 
ative of distinctly moral values. Wisdom has been 
defined as the adaptation of means to ends. In that 
sort of wisdom Solomon was strong, but when it came 
to an estimate of the worth of the ends themselves, he 
was deplorably weak, almost silly. The record makes 
it clear what ends, in the eyes of Solomon, were ex- 
ceedingly desirable. He wanted to make Israel a great 
and magnificent Oriental monarchy, which, on every 
side, would reflect his own power and glory. What 
did it matter to him that the common people were 



88 Old Testament History 

crushed beneath an overwhelming burden of taxation ? 
It mattered no more to him than a similar state of af- 
fairs did to Louis XIV of France, whom, in several 
points, Solomon closely resembles. The foreign mar- 
riages were contracted without a thought, probably, of 
the effect of introducing heathen princesses and their 
retainers, who would insist upon observing their native 
worship, with all its immoralities, into the inmost 
circles of the court. That aspect of the matter Solo- 
mon probably did not take into account at all. He 
simply asked whether or not these marriages were ad- 
visable from a diplomatic point of view ; if they were, 
that was all he wanted to know. And when the evils 
of this policy became manifest, like many another 
statesmen he regretted — mildly — the evil, but fastened 
his attention on the plain advantages of his policy. 
The trouble was that Solomon had no keen appreciation 
of spiritual values, as such, when they did not contrib- 
ute to secular ends. He could use them when they 
served his purpose, but he would not sacrifice much 
for purely spiritual ends — hardly anything at all. Now 
that is just the sort of shrewdness that is constantly 
over-reaching itself, by expending its energies on un- 
worthy ends, and fighting against the most implacable 
and unconquerable of all enemies — the nature of 
things. For, however we may explain it, the nature 
of things is moral and spiritual. The kingdom of God 
is not a by-product of worldly success, but "all these 
things" are a by-product of seeking the kingdom of 
God and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33). 

Still further, the tone of the whole record, as well 
as its explicit statements, makes it clear that it was only 
on ceremonial occasions or in a crisis that Solomon felt 
any strong inclination to seek the counsel of Jehovah. 
Certainly the thought of Jehovah, of His will and law 
and judgment, was not abidingly in his mind. In the 
book of Proverbs there are fourteen distinct sayings 
which, taken together, trace back the chief blessings 
of life to "the fear of Jehovah." If Solomon wrote 



Chapter 25. The Folly of Solomon 



89 






these proverbs he discerned the truth with his mind; 
it did not penetrate into his nature and vitalize it. 
Look at one of these sayings : "The fear of Jehovah is 
the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 9: 10). The "fear 
of Jehovah" added to the wisdom Solomon had would 
have given him the true wisdom ; for there is no disci- 
pline or experience which ever can do so much to give 
one a just appreciation of moral values as "the fear of 
Jehovah." The comparatively unlearned man who has 
that consciousness of God has the sovereign clue to 
sane moral judgments ; he sees the issues of life in a 
true perspective. He may be unskilful in adapting 
means to ends, but he knows what the unworthy ends 
of life are; and "the fear of Jehovah" imparts the im- 
pulse to preserve them. Whatever the clarity of Solo- 
mon's mental insight, he seems to have lacked moral 
discrimination, and certainly he had the faintest moral 
impulse. Solomon did not appreciate moral values, and 
he did not have "the fear of Jehovah" before his eyes, 
which would have given him that appreciation. 

The career of Solo- 
mon was a brief, 
bright day in the 
history of Israel. The 
unreflecting looked 
back upon it as the 
height of Israel's 
splendor, and so, in 
a sense, it was. But 
those who looked be- 
neath the surface of 

events saw a Splendid Solomon's Temple. 

Opportunity wasted, As restored by Prof. Stade. 

and they came to trace the divided kingdom and the 
horrors of the captivity to the folly of Solomon. His 
career taught the impressive lesson, on a large scale, 
that advantages of birth, fortune, and intellect, in a 
word, the most splendid human powers, must be sub- 
ordinated to moral considerations and devoted to mor- 




90 Old Testament History 

al ends if they are to work out permanent good to 
the possessor or to those whose interests are in his 
hand. "The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wis- 
dom." 



Chapter 26. Review of Chapters 14-25. 91 

CHAPTE3R XXVI. 
REVIEW OF CHAPTERS I4-25. 

In the narratives we have been studying in the pre- 
vious chapters, we have had brought before us, in a 
vivid and concrete way, the story of the development 
into the empire of Solomon of the tribes which, after 
the forty years in the wilderness, entered Canaan. It 
is proper that we should review this whole course of 
study in the light of the question, What are the factors 
that make for a strong, progressive, and permanent na- 
tional life? 

Prominent among these factors is sagacious leader- 
ship. It is interesting to notice, throughout this whole 
history, how largely the welfare and advance of the 
people depended on the insight and force of character 
of a few men in positions of leadership. We cannot 
think of the story without having such personalities 
as Samuel and Saul and David recur to memory. These 
men were by no means perfect morally, or uniformly 
sagacious, but their outlook was immeasurably wider 
than that of the people, and the net result of their ad- 
ministration was to the great advantage of the state. 
In our own history it is difficult to over-estimate the 
value to the nation of the group of wise and patriotic 
men who laid the foundations of our republic. And 
at the crisis of our history remarkable men have arisen 
who have been equal to the situation. Israel could not 
have become what she was under Solomon, if it had 
not been for Samuei and David. Our own nation 
could not be what she is if it had not been for Wash- 
ington and Lincoln. 

A second element in this development was the sink- 
ing of sectional and partisan interest in an honest devo- 
tion to the public welfare on the part of the whole 
people. The story of the judges presents such a hope- 
less picture because it looks as if it were impossible 



92 Old Testment History 

that the mutual jealousies of the tribes would ever 
give place to any real national spirit. The conflicts of 
the tribes with each other were the secret of the Philis- 
tine triumph, rather than the Philistine resources 
or generalship. When the Israelites were united they 
were more than a match for their enemies. But Ben- 
jamin had been almost annihilated by the united 
tribes in a war of vengeance (Jud. chs. 19-21), and 
the strength of Ephraim had been broken by the Gad- 
ites under Jephthah (Jud. 12:1-6). The ill success 
of some of the best plans of Saul, and his defeat at 
Mount Gilboa, were due in large part to the antagonism 
that developed between him and the prophetical order, 
and to the alliance of David and his followers with the 
Philistine enemies of Israel (1 Sam. 27:5-7). The 
most serious difficulty that confronted David after he 
was anointed king at Hebron (2 Sam. 2: 1-11) was 
the jealousy between Judah and the northern tribes. 
There is nothing more remarkable in the story of 
David than the series of fortunate events and the as- 
tute diplomacy which led all Israel to unite in choosing 
him as king (2 Sam. ch. 5). That act, by showing 
that the tribes were willing to sink their sectionalism 
in promoting the welfare of the whole people, estab- 
lished the indispensable condition for a progressive 
and permanent national life. 

In our own country we may see the close parallel 
to this movement in Israel. With us as with Israel 
a combination of forces has led to the subordination of 
the sectional and the partisan to the public welfare. 
The process is not yet complete. There is still need 
for the warning of Washington's farewell address 
against the evils of partisanship. But we have pro- 
found reason for thanking God that during the last 
hundred years there has been a steady growth, 
throughout the whole nation, of that true patriotism 
which subordinates the local and self-interested to the 
welfare of the whole. Without this spirit it is impos- 
sible to achieve a strong or noble type of national life. 



Chapter 26. Review of Chapters 14-25 93 

In the third place, these records of the past illustrate 
the controlling part of the moral factor in the life of a 
nation. A people may have sagacious leadership and 
a large degree of unity, and yet fail in building the 
nation, because the law of righteousness is not made 
supreme. The great message that rings through all 
these chapters is the sentence in the Proverbs ( 14 : 34) : 

"Righteousness exalteth a nation ; 
But sin is a reproach to any people." 

The most serious enemy against which Israel had 
to contend was not the strength of the Philistines, or 
even the jealousies of her own tribes; it was the deep- 
seated inclination to forsake "the law of Jehovah." 
One would think that it would have been burned into 
the national consciousness that there was no good 
apart from His favor, the condition of which was ob- 
servance of His law. Beneath all the apparent success 
and glory of the kingdom of Solomon we detect the 
elements of weakness and political disintegration, be- 
cause the nation was making the moral dictates in- 
volved in the service of Jehovah subordinate to its de- 
sire for wealth and luxury and the pride of dominion. 
Rudyard Kipling put the great lesson from this his- 
tory of Israel, and the great warning from it to our 
own and every other nation, in a single stanza: 

"If, drunk with sight of power, we loose 

Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe — 

Such boasting as the Gentiles use, 
Or lesser breed without the Law — 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,, 

Lest we forget — lest we forget." 



94 Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE WRATH OF MAN AND GOD'S PURPOSE. 

1 Ki. 12 : 1—16 : 28. 

There were several factors besides the despotic ar- 
rogance of Rehoboam (i Ki. 12: 12-15) which led to 
the disruption of the kingdom of Solomon immedi- 
ately after his death. Up to the time of David the 
separation between the northern tribes (Israel, or 
Ephraim) and the southern tribe (Judah) had been 
almost complete. The territory between the northern 
and southern branches of the Hebrews was occupied 
by Canaanitish cities, and among them was the strong 
fortress of Jebus. The good fortune and diplomacy 
of David had broken down the reluctance of the 
northern tribes to recognize his kingship over the 
whole Hebrew people ; and his conquest of the Canaan- 
itish cities in the territory between Judah and Israel, 
and his audacity and strategic insight in making one 
of them (Jerusalem) his own capital, facilitated the 
realization of national unity, which now became terri- 
torial as well as racial and sentimental. And yet 
David, in spite of these brilliant successes, never 
quite succeeded in allaying the jealousy between the 
north and the south. The most serious difficulties of 
the later years of his reign arose from this smoulder- 
ing antagonism, which was always ready to burst into 
a flame (2 Sam. 19:40-43; 2 Sam. 20:14-22). The 
momentum of David's reign was strong enough to se- 
cure the acceptance on the part of the northern tribes 
of Solomon as king, on the ground that he had been 
nominated by David ; and Solomon took good care to 
put to death every one who might contest his title with 
any show of success. 

Strangely enough, Solomon, in spite of his high 
reputation for wisdom, committed an act of stupen- 
dous political folly in building up the splendors of the 



Chapter 27. Wrath of Man and God's Purpose 95 

capital, which was within the territory of Judah, by 
means of the oppressive taxation of the northern 
tribes. If at first the northern people rejoiced in Solo- 
mon's display of Oriental magnificence, they soon 
awoke to the fact that they were paying a large part of 
the expense, and that conditions of life were becoming 
less tolerable for them because of heavy taxes and 
forced labor. 

At the death of Solomon these grievances mani- 
fested themselves decisively. The hereditary antago- 
nism of north and south was reinforced by the pre- 
ponderating influence of the south, when it gave an 
unfair and despotic king to the whole people. The 
whole situation was tremulous with difficulty. The 
north was certain to seize the installation of a suc- 
cessor to Solomon as an opportunity to assert its own 
rights in the national government. That is exactly 
what happened. The hereditary succession to the 
crown had not been firmly established — though in sub- 
sequent times it prevailed in Judah, it was never ad- 
mitted in Israel. The northern tribes withheld their 
ratification of Rehoboam's accession as king until they 
had received satisfactory guarantees as to their own 
rights in the government. Accordingly their represen- 
tatives met Rehoboam at Shechem — the old northern 
capital — with the request, actually a demand and an 
ultimatum : "Thy father made our yoke grievous : now 
therefore make thou the grievous service of thy fa- 
ther, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, 
and we will serve thee" (1 Ki. 12:4). With an in- 
sane folly Rehoboam, following the counsel of the 
gilded youth who had been brought up with him in the 
court of Solomon, replied : "My father made your yoke 
heavy, but I will add to your yoke: my father chas- 
tised you with whips, but I will chastise you with 
scorpions" (1 Ki. 12:14). That reply — unsympa- 
thetic, insolent, despotic — marked a fatal moment. 
The forces that we have just reviewed threatened the 
disruption of the kingdom ; that reply accomplished it. 



g6 Old Testament History 

The Hebrew kingdom, in an instant, split apart, 
never to be reunited. The clock of destiny struck. 
After that reply the course of human history ran in 
new channels. 

Jeroboam, who was chosen king of Israel, had 
many advantages in building up a strong power. The 
northern tribes had been less affected by the idolatries 
introduced by Solomon, and the prophetic schools had 
flourished in the north better than in the south. If 
the welfare of the nation depended on its devotion to 
the purer worship of Jehovah the great advantage was 
with Israel ; but with a folly that matches the folly oi 
Rehoboam at Shechem, Jeroboam, threw away all this 
advantage by establishing the calf-worship at Dan and 
Beth-el. His purpose in this was purely political. His 
object was to provide a counter attraction to the wor- 
ship at Jerusalem (i Ki. 12: 26-33). Even if we sup- 
pose that the calf-worship was not idolatry, but a 
real worship of Jehovah under the symbol of power, 
Jeroboam's policy was the return to an outgrown and 
crude conception of the Most High, and under the 
conditions, it practically amounted to idolatry. The 
records do not leave us in doubt as to the fact that this 
debased worship was the real cause of Israel's pro- 
gressive decline and gradual extinction. The north- 
ern kingdom forsook Jehovah, and deliberately 
adopted a substantially heathen cult. 

In Judah, at first, the outlook was hardly more hope- 
ful. The idolatries that had been introduced by Solo- 
mon continued to flourish. Egypt improved the op- 
portunity afforded by the division of the Hebrew na- 
tion to overrun Judah (1 Ki. 14:25, 26). It looked 
as if the southern kingdom were doomed to extinc- 
tion. But under Asa, the second king after Rehoboam, 
there was a general return of the whole people to the 
pure worship of Jehovah (1 Ki. 15:9-25). That 
proved to be the saving factor in Jewish history. Asa 
made a prodigious blunder in entering into alliance 
with Syria to protect himself against the encroach- 



Chapter 2J. Wrath of Man and God's Purpose 97 

ments of Israel from the north (1 Ki. 15: 16-21), but 
his devotion to Jehovah kept the flame of ethical mono- 
theistic worship burning. It had almost gone out. 
The darkest time for true religion since Abraham left 
Chaldea was the beginning of the reign of Asa. 

Still, in spite of these terrific blunders that we have 
been considering, may we not discern in this history 
the unfolding of a divine purpose? One blunder 
counteracted another, and through all this clash of 
ambition and passion the cause of true religion was 
advancing. The ostentation and luxury and false 
standards of Solomon brought about the division of 
the kingdom, but the division of the kingdom pre- 
vented the Hebrew nation from becoming an Oriental 
heathen monarchy. The rivalry of Israel and the 
shortsighted policy of Asa opened the way to the cap- 
tivity, but the captivity gave birth to the sublime vision 
and confidence of the prophets, out of which Chris- 
tianity comes. Well might the Hebrew people say : 

"All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. 
Yet Jehovah will command his lovingkindness in the day- 
time; 
And in the night his song shall be with me. Ps. 42 : 7, 8. 

Out of the tragedy there came a song. 



98 



Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
THE FOLLY OF MORAL COMPROMISE. 

1 Ki. 16 : 29—19 : 21; ch. 21. 

The sentence that illuminates the situation in Israel 
during the reign of Ahab, and the conflict of Ahab 
with Elijah, is the summons of Elijah to all Israel at 
Carmel: "If Jehovah be God, follow him" (i Ki. 
18:21). 

Ahab is an excellent example of that type of men 
whose primary interest is material. Often they are 
somewhat reluctant to subordinate moral and spiritual 
ends to purely temporal advantage, but they can be 
confidently reckoned upon to make the sacrifice when 
the issue is actually presented. 

The policy of Ahab is entirely intelligible. He real- 
ized that, if Israel was to hold its own against Judah, 
and against its powerful rivals to the north and east, 
it must negotiate serviceable alliances, and make the 
best use of its commercial advantages. The throne of 




Ruins on the Site of Old Tyre. 

Tyre, the capital of the Phoenician world and the center 
of Phoenician culture, had been seized by Ethbaal, an 
ex-priest of Baal. Ahab achieved a brilliant stroke 
of policy by marrying Jezebel, the daughter of this 
usurping king. This alliance appears to have led to 
a commercial treaty (Amos 1:9) that gave a strong 



Chapter 28. The Folly of Moral Compromise. 99 

impulse to the agricultural and industrial development 
of Israel, and popularized Phoenician ideas and cus- 
toms throughout the kingdom. But Jezebel herself 
was the principal cause of the introduction of the 
religion of Phoenicia into Israel. Even Solomon had 
found it difficult to exclude from Jerusalem the various 
cults of his heathen wives. But none of his wives 
appears to have been of the type of Jezebel. She was 
an able, determined and unscrupulous woman. She 
deliberately set herself to assimilate the worship of 
Israel to that of Tyre, and she bade fair to be com- 
pletely successful. The material interests of Israel 
dictated a close observance of the Phoenician alliance. 
As a foreign princess Jezebel's rights of worship and 
those of her retainers had probably been guaranteed 
by a formal treaty, and her social position, fascination, 
audacity and real ability were no mean powers. 

It is probably incorrect to describe Ahab as adopting 
the religion of Jezebel, or as greatly influenced by it 
as a system of faith and worship. He did, indeed, 
build a temple and altar of Baal at Samaria to please 
his wife, but all along he seems to have held that she 




Mount Carmel. 

might worship her god, while he was true to his an- 
cestral deity, Jehovah. In confirmation of this it has 
been noticed that the name of Jehovah forms a part 
of the names of each of Ahab's children ( 1 Ki. 22:40; 
2 Ki. 3 : 1 ; 2 Ki. 8 : 26, comp. 8 : 18). And yet, though 
Ahab may have been able to persuade himself that he 



ioo Old Testament History 

was not disloyal to Jehovah, the insidious influence 
of the sensual Phoenician worship won its way with 
him (i Ki. 16:33). His readiness to profit by the 
cruel outrage through which Jezebel acquired Naboth's 
vineyard (1 Ki. 21:1-16) indicates the ascendancy 
this evil woman had acquired over him. 

The clue, however, to the policy of Ahab lies in his 
purpose to promote the material interests of his king- 
dom. Even his marriage was only incidental to that. 
It was a policy that was justifying itself by its success, 
and he did not find it difficult to persuade himself that 
he had not really forsaken Jehovah. He probably 
argued that he was in a difficult position, and that he 
should not be blamed too severely if, at the cost of 
tolerating the Phoenician worship in Israel, he made 
the nation more prosperous. 

In view of these considerations the attitude and 
message of Elijah are unmistakable. The primary 
interest of Ahab was the political and commercial 
aggrandizement of Israel. The primary interest of 
Elijah was the loyalty of Israel to Jehovah in order 
that the knowledge and worship of the true God might 
be firmly established in the earth. The antagonism 
between the prophet and the king was the perpetual 
antagonism between those whose main object is the 
kingdom of God and His righteousness and those 
whose main object is all those things which the Gen- 
tiles seek (Mt. 6:32, 33). In the eyes of Ahab, Eli- 
jah, like many another in every age who has put the 
dictates of righteousness above those of apparent polit- 
ical or commercial expediency, was unpatriotic. In the 
eyes of Elijah, Ahab, in subordinating the moral vir- 
tues and the spiritual welfare of Israel to material ad- 
vantage, was guilty of supreme disloyalty to every- 
thing that was noblest and best in the life of the 
nation. 

Elijah's challenge, "If Jehovah be God, follow him," 
was the sharp summons of king and people to their 
spiritual allegiance. Elijah sees that the fundamental 



Chapter 28. The Folly of Moral Compromise 10 1 




issue is whether Jehovah is a reality or a fiction. If 
Jehovah is a reality, all these attempts of Ahab to 
secure the welfare of Israel by compromises with 
heathen customs and worship thwart the very end 
at which they aim, for if 
Jehovah is actually God 
He will not permit Ahab 
and Israel to succeed 
while rejecting allegiance 
to Him. If Jehovah is 
God, the supreme duty, 
reinforced not only by 
conscience, but by politi- 
cal expediency, is to fol- 
low Him. If Baal is God, 
the duty is equally im- 
perative to follow him. 
When the fact of the ex- 
istence and character of 
God has been settled, all 
policies must adjust them- 
selves to it (Mt. 21:44). 
There is no possible com- 
promise between one's 
conviction as to God, and the things of which God 
disapproves. 

The moral significance of the dramatic episodes of 
the famine (1 Ki. 18:1-6), that fulfilled Elijah's 
prophecy (17: 1), and of the lightning flash at Carmel 
(18:31-39), lies in the demonstration they afforded 
of the reality of Jehovah's existence. When the rains 
and fires of the heavens confirm the claims of Jehovah's 
prophet there is no room for doubt as to the reality of 
Jehovah's existence. He is not a fiction of the imagi- 
nation, but a fact. 

And the man who puts himself in antagonism 
to Jehovah arrays against himself all the forces of crea- 
tion (Ps. 148). It is hardly possible to conceive of 
a more cogent illustration of the suicidal folly of moral 



From "Glimpses of Bible Lands. " 

The Elijah Monastery at the Brook 
Cherith. 

In a gorge near Jericho. The monas- 
tery, built into the cliff, marks the tra- 
ditional place that sheltered Elijah. 



102 



Old Testament History 



compromises, or of a more inexorable logic than 
Elijah's reasoning when he said : "If Jehovah be God, 
follow him." 






ilSifiHIll^^iii 


m 


^^lj^||H|^^g ^**s 





From a photograph. 

Chapel on Mount Carmel, the Site of Elijah's 
Sacrifice. 



Chapter 29. The Development of Tendencies 103 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF TENDENCIES. 

1 Ki. chs. 20, 22; 2 Ki. chs. 1-8. 

The Biblical historians show remarkable sagacity 
in seizing what to-day is called "the genetic concep- 
tion of history." On the one hand, they do not pre- 
tend to give us a full account of what took place 
without regard to its importance ; on the other hand, 
they do not record events simply for their dramatic 
interest. In their eyes an event is important just so 
far as it illustrates a central principle, which interprets 
the significance of the historic movement they are 
considering. They select events wholly with refer- 
ence to their close relation to the causes out of which 
the historic process springs. It is for this reason that 
it is comparatively easy to discern a line of light 
running through each period which the Biblical writ- 
ers treat, and also to apprehend a genetic bond that 
co-ordinates all the narratives into a higher unity. If 
a historian correctly apprehends the genetic principle 
that controls the evolution of events he will give us a 
work that is at once faithful to the past and inter- 
pretative of the present. 

The genetic idea of the author of the book of Kings 
is that fidelity to Jehovah is the condition of the na- 
tional welfare and independence of the Hebrew people. 
The unhappy division of the kingdom after the death 
of Solomon, which becomes the secondary cause of so 
many misfortunes, is traced to Solomon's disobedience 
to the command that he should not "go after other 
gods" (1 Ki. 11 : 9-13, 31-34). And throughout the nar- 
rative we are now considering, the constant explanation 
of disappointment, disaster and overthrow is that this 
king and that "walked in the way of Jeroboam the son 
of Nebat, wherein he made Israel to sin" ( 1 Ki. 15 : 26, 
34; 22:52). 



104 Old Testament History 

The primal cause, then, of the division and animosi- 
ties and mistaken policies and defeats of the two 
branches of the Hebrew people is not social or econ- 
omic or military, but moral and spiritual. 

We can see that three great mistakes were made by 
the Hebrews during this period. The first was the 
course of Asa in seeking the aid of Ben-hadad, king 
of Syria (Damascus) against Baasha, king of Israel 
(i Ki. 15:18-20). This was a natural sequence of 
the antagonism between the two branches of the He- 
brews, and illustrates how evil breeds evil. That alli- 
ance introduced an important and troublesome factor 
into the whole situation. It accentuated the animosity 
between the two kingdoms ; it resulted in the loss of 
several important Hebrew cities, and though Ahab of 
Israel joined with Jehoshaphat of Judah to recover 
Ramoth-gilead they were unsuccessful ( 1 Ki. 22 : 3- 
36) and no better fortune attended the attempt of 
Ahaziah of Judah and Joram of Israel to take the city 
(2 Ki. 8:28). But the worst result, perhaps, of this 
policy was that it involved the two kingdoms in all 
the political intrigues of the world empires, and made 
them little more than pawns on the chess-board of 
Semitic politics. 

And the blunder of Asa was matched by a similar 
blunder on the part of Ahab with reference to the same 
foreign power. Ben-hadad II had twice attempted 
unsuccessfully to invade Israel (1 Ki. ch. 20). It 
seems that on his second defeat Ahab had him com- 
pletely in his power. But, instead of demanding the 
conquered cities as the price of peace, Ahab appears 
to have accepted the simple pledge of Ben-hadad that 
they should be returned. It has been suggested that 
Ahab followed this lenient course toward Ben-hadad 
because he wished an alliance with him against the 
threatening power of Assyria. But the fixed determi- 
nation of Ahab to get possession of these cities, as soon 
as he was convinced that Ben-hadad did not intend to 
restore them, indicates that he had put too much con- 



Chapter 29. The Development of Tendencies 105 



fidence in Ben-hadad's word. It is singular that men 
like Ahab can rely fully on the word of a fellow man, 
and yet thoroughly distrust the pledges of Jehovah. 
But disloyalties to God weaken our confidence in 
Him. And Ahab, who had had so many proofs 
through Elijah's ministry of Jehovah's existence and 
power and fidelity, could refuse to give God the loyalty 
that he gave to Ben-hadad and expected from him. 

External pressure had brought Israel and Judah to- 
gether against Damascus ; it also united them tempo- 
rarily against Moab. The campaign of the two He- 
brew kings against the Moabites was replete with in- 
cidents fitted to increase the confidence of the leaders 
and their armies in the God of Israel. The expedition 
had been saved in the desert by a wonderful supply of 
water (2 Ki. 3:20). An optical illusion enticed their 
enemies to destruction (2 Ki. 3:21-25). Jehovah 
promised to give them the victory (2 Ki. 3: 18). But 




From the "Leeper photographs,' copyrighted. 

Elisha's Fountain, at Jericho. 

The place where Elisha healed the waters. This fountain still gives a 
copious supply of good water. 

all went for naught because the Hebrew hosts did not 
believe sufficiently in Jehovah to withstand the tre- 
mendous demonstration by the king of Moab of his 
belief in his god (2 Ki. 3:27). And so the historian 
enables us to trace back each one of these mistakes and 
defeats to its real cause — want of thorough, loyal al- 
legiance to Jehovah. 

And yet the narrative, on the other hand, makes it 



io6 Old Testament History 

clear that Jehovah did not desert His people. Elisha 
carried on the work of Elijah. Let us not forget that 
it was the corrupt northern kingdom which Jehovah 
delivered from the hand of Syria at Dothan (2 Ki. 
6:8-23) and at Samaria (2 Ki. ch. 7), and that the 
very changes that were taking place in Damascus were 
ordered by Jehovah with reference to the Hebrew 
states (2 Ki. ch. 8). 



Chapter 30. The Clash of Forces 107 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE CLASH OF FORCES. 
2 Ki. chs. 9-13. 

Moral and spiritual forces do not develop their 
proper results unopposed and unhindered. Good and 
evil are always in conflict. The resultant of interac- 
tion and antagonism is never the ideal good, or com- 
plete evil. The contribution that any period makes to 
true civilization and religion depends upon whether 
or not the moral and spiritual forces make any appreci- 
able headway against the lower desires. There have 
been epochs in which the higher tendencies, regarded 
by themselves, have not been insignificant or feeble; 
but the lower proclivities of rulers and people have 
been so disproportionately stronger that the net out- 
come of the period has been a loss of the nobler charac- 
teristics of national life. Great moral agencies were in 
operation but, great as they were, they were over- 
matched and overborne by the tremendous forces of 
selfishness and passion. 

The period of the revolution under Jehu conforms 
to this general description. Moral forces were at work 
of no mean order. For example, the deep resentment 
of the whole people at the judicial murder of Naboth 
indicates the existence of a sound moral sense. Even 
the great house of Omri was threatened by an aroused 
public opinion. There is something essentially whole- 
some in the moral life of a people when a wrong done 
to an individual arouses the whole nation, as the in- 
justice to Dreyfus aroused France, or as the outrage 
upon Naboth aroused Israel. 

Then, too, Elisha, by methods quite different from 
those of Elijah, had succeeded in organizing effective- 
ly the widespread antagonism to the worship of the 
Phoenician Baal, which had been introduced by Jeze- 
bel. These two conditions made it comparatively easy 



io8 



Old Testament History 



for Jehu, with the support of Elisha, to overthrow the 
house of Omri, putting Jezebel to a shameful death 
(2 Ki. 9: 30-37), exterminating the seed royal, accord- 




Ruins at Jezreel, the Site of Jezebel's Palace. 

ing to the custom of Oriental despots (2 Ki. 10: 1-12), 
and wreaking signal vengeance upon the prophets of 
Baal (2 Ki. 10:18-28). 

But the zeal of Jehu failed at the crisis. He could 
be fierce enough against the foreign idolatry intro- 
duced by Jezebel, but very tolerant toward the heathen- 
ism of bull-worship that was so deep-seated in the 
life of Israel. "Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of 
Israel. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son 
of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin, Jehu de- 
parted not from after them, to wit, the golden calves 
that were in Beth-el, and that were in Dan" (2 Ki. 
10:28, 29). Thus reform in the northern kingdom 
proceeded to a certain extent, when it was sharply 
brought to a halt by the inveterate heathenism of Jehu, 
in which he appears to have had a large popular 
support. 

At this point a new factor enters the situation. The 
historian sees what the prophets were soon to empha- 
size, namely, that the God of Israel was so truly the 
Lord of the whole earth that He used foreign nations as 
the instrument of His will upon Israel. "In those days 
Jehovah began to cut off from Israel: and Hazael 
[whom Elijah was commissioned to anoint as king of 



Chapter 30. The Clash of Forces 109 

Damascus (1 Ki. 19: 15-17)] smote them in all the 
borders of Israel" (2 Ki. 10:32). The power of Je- 
hovah to counteract and punish evil is not limited to 
the forces resident in the specific situation. Damascus 
and Egypt and Assyria work out His purposes upon 
Israel (Amos 9:7). 

When we pass to the southern kingdom we see a 
similar contest between the forces of good and evil, 
with apparently greater advantage on the side of the 
evil. The alliance between Israel and Judah resulted 
in placing the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, through 
her marriage to Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, upon 
the throne of Judah. Athaliah was the daughter of 
Jezebel not only after the flesh but after the spirit. She 
succeeded in breaking up the temple of Jehovah, and 
probably used its materials in constructing the shrine 
of Baal (2 Chron. 24:7). On the death of Ahaziah 
at the hands of Jehu, Athaliah seized the throne, and 
to render her position impregnable destroyed the seed 
royal, massacring all of her own grandchildren, except 
Joash, who was preserved in hiding (2 Ki. 11: 1-3). 
The rallying of the people about the youthful king, 
when Jehoiada exhibited him in public, indicates that 
the moral sense of the nation revolted from the crimes 
and idolatries of Athaliah. The description of the 
covenant "between Jehovah and the king and the 
people," and of the whole-hearted action of the na- 
tion, and of the thorough reconstruction of the house 
of Jehovah (2 Ki. 11 : 17, 18; 12:4-17), points toward 
an underlying loyalty to Jehovah in Judah to which 
there is no parallel in Israel. This fact does something 
to explain why it was that Judah, and not Israel, be- 
came the torch-bearer of the true worship of God. 

And yet, as we ponder the story of this epoch, we 
can hardly rid ourselves of the conviction that good 
overcomes evil only by narrow margins. The issue 
of the battle long trembles in the balance. But that 
conviction, depressing as it may seem at first sight, 
gives rise to a great incentive and a great inspiration. 



no Old Testament History 

It moves us to believe that the good work of every 
individual is indispensable in this great conflict, and 
that He who sits upon the circle of the heavens will 
give the final victory to the good. 



Chapter 31. The Peril of Prosperity in 



CHAPTER XXXI. 
THE PERIL OF PROSPERITY. 

2 Ki. 14 : 1—15 : 7; 2 Chron. ch. 26; Amos. 

Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah were 
able administrators, superior to most of their prede- 
cessors, but they could not have brought about the con- 
ditions of general prosperity that marked their reigns, 
if it had not been for the contemporary political situ- 
ation in the Semitic world. The northern kingdom, 
whose location made it sustain the brunt of attacks 
from the east, had proved that single-handed it was 
no match for Damascus. During the greater part of 
his reign Hazael of Damascus had been free to carry 
on a devastating war against Israel, because Assyria 
was fully occupied in holding its own against the rising 
power of its northern rival, Armenia. When, however, 
Assyria was free to attend to the eastern provinces, it 
dealt the son of Hazael a crushing blow, and Damascus 




A Street in Damascus. 

was only saved from pillage by the payment of a vast 
ransom. It became evident to far-seeing men, like the 
prophet Amos, that if Assyria found her hands free 
for any length of time, Samaria and Jerusalem would 
share the fate of Damascus, but, for forty years after 
this, the hands of Assyria were not free, or she was 



112 



Old Testament History 



weakly ruled. When, however, Tiglath-pileser III — 
the Pul of 2 Ki. 15: 19 — usurped the throne of As- 
syria, b. c. 745, what the statesmen of western Asia 
had seen to be inevitable, in the long run, began to take 
place. The period of prosperity for the two kingdoms 
is the lull between the Assyrian defeat of Damascus, 
and the putting forth of Assyrian power in Palestine 
under the generalship of Tiglath-pileser III. 

The natural resources and the advantages of the 
commercial position of Palestine are impressively 
shown in the remarkable material prosperity which fol- 
lowed the withdrawal of the menace of Damascus and 
Assyria. The land yielded abundantly. Uzziah of 
Judah revived the project of Solomon of opening and 
defending the commercial routes to the trade of 
Arabia (2 Ki. 14:22), while the military capacity of 
Jeroboam II enlarged the borders of Israel to their old 
limits in the palmiest days of David. 




Ruins at Samaria. 

Our information about the situation in Israel is 
much more complete than about Judah. Similar gen- 
eral conditions, however, prevailed in both kingdoms. 
The picture that Amos draws is most impressive. He 
represents Samaria as enjoying unparalleled luxury. 
Some of his graphic phrases remind one of Juvenal's 
descriptions of Roman ostentation and sensuality. And 
the new wealth was so unequally distributed that in 
the rise of prices the poor and the middle class found 



Chapter 31. The Peril of Prosperity 113 

themselves in a desperate case, while the rich wallowed 
in costly indulgences. Sudden riches also produced 
their usual effect. The rich became hard-hearted and 
oppressive. They would sell a poor man into slavery 
ior debt for a pair of cheap sandals (Amos 2:6). The 
religious situation became peculiar. Baal worship, 
even, does not appear to be greatly in evidence. There 
was a revival of the worship of Jehovah as the peculiar 
deity of the Hebrews, but this worship was purely ex- 
ternal and formal. It consisted in a magnificent ritual 
and costly sacrifices. It did not come from the heart 
or influence the moral life (Amos 5 : 21-24). 

The prophet Amos, who, though born in Judah, ap- 
peared in the northern kingdom at just this juncture, 
was one of the sovereign personalities in the spiritual 
history of mankind. It is to him that we owe the 
most brilliant and majestic assertion of the inevitable 
inferences from monotheism. The Hebrews could 
have had no doubt as to the righteous character of 
Jehovah, and as to His demand for righteousness in 
those who worshiped Him. Amos reasserted this 
truth, but he gave it tremendous force by proclaiming 
or reasserting that Jehovah was not simply the God 
of the Hebrews or of Palestine, but the God of all 
nature, of the whole earth, and of all men and nations. 
"He that formeth the mountains, and createth the 
wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought; 
that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon 
the high places of the earth — Jehovah, the God of hosts, 
is his name" (Amos 4:13). "Have not I brought 
up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines 
from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?" (Amos. 
9:7.) The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was not 
more the work of Jehovah than the advances of the 
Philistines or the campaigns of the Syrians. The 
nations themselves — Damascus in all her pride, and 
Tyre in all her wealth, and Babylon in all her dominion 
— are only instruments in the hand of Jehovah, the 
God of Israel, to work His will. And since righteous- 



114 Old Testament History 

ness is supreme in the character of Jehovah, righteous- 
ness is at the heart of nature, and the interests of 
righteousness are transcendent in the development of 
human history. Amos added to his assertion of the 
righteousness and universality of Jehovah's rule a 
third truth, namely, that the covenant relation in which 
the Hebrews stood to Jehovah so far from involving 
immunity from the penalties of unrighteousness 
carried with it a more exacting requirement and a se- 
verer punishment. "You only have I known of all the 
families of the earth ; therefore I will visit upon you 
all your iniquities'' (Amos 3:2). 

We have seen that foreign idolatries had been quite 
thoroughly banished from both kingdoms at this 
period. But the reception which the great spiritual 
message of Amos met shows that mere worldliness, 
devotion to pleasure, absorption in the material aspects 
of life may render the heart as impervious to spiritual 
religion as the worship of a false god (Amos 7: 10- 
15). The first commandment is not simply directed 
against the worship of idols made of wood or stone — 
we may make idols of our own pleasures and imagina- 
tions. That is exactly what Israel did in this period 
of marvelous prosperity, and her ears were as dull to 
the prophetic message, and her heart was as far from 
Jehovah as when the cult of the Tyrian Baal was fas- 
cinating the people under the patronage of Jezebel. 



Chapter 32. The Rod of Jehovah 115 



CHAPTER XXXU. 

THE ROD OF JEHOVAH. 

Selections and External History. 

Amos was the first of the prophets to grasp the 
magnificent conception that the whole course of human 
history is controlled by Jehovah, and that it advances 
His purpose. In the earlier writings of the Hebrews 
you find distinct recognition of the fact that Jehovah 
enabled Israel to conquer her enemies. Indeed, the 
prevailing conception of Jehovah is colored by the fact 
that He had brought His people "out of the land of 
Egypt, out of the house of bondage" — a description 
that stands at the forefront of the ten commandments, 
and furnishes their ground and motive. The Hebrews 
also had come to recognize that Jehovah, because of 
their disobedience, often gave the victory in war to 
their enemies, as at Ai (Josh. 7: 5, 11, 12). But in all 
these representations the field of vision is limited. It 
is restricted to the immediate occasion and environ- 
ment. The largest generalization reached before 
Amos seems to have been something like this : Jehovah 
would bring it about that His people would conquer 
their enemies and establish a state kingdom,, if they 
were loyal to Him. Amos went beyond this. He said 
that the Ethiopians, the Philistines and the Syrians 
were as absolutely under the control of Jehovah as the 
Israelites. He had brought the Philistines from Caph- 
tor and the Syrians from Kir as truly as He had 
brought Israel out of Egypt (Amos 9:7). The doc- 
trine of Amos is not simply that Jehovah is powerful 
enough to enable Israel to defeat her enemies, but that 
Philistia and Tyre and Damascus are as absolutely 
in the hand of Jehovah to accomplish His purpose as 
Samaria or Jerusalem. The man who laid the firm 
foundation for a philosophy of history was not Augus- 
tine in his "De Civitate Dei," or Vico of Italy, or Bos- 



n6 



Old Testament History 




suet of France, or Herder of Germany, but Amos of 

Tekoa. 

Recent investigations in the valleys of the Tigris 

and Euphrates have thrown a flood of light upon the 

nature and history of the 
Kingdom of Assyria. We 
now know that it was one 
of the greatest, possibly 
the greatest, of the world 
empires, and that the his- 
tory of the Hebrews was 
almost as profoundly af- 
fected by what was taking 
place in the Mesopotamian 
valley as by the events on 
the hills of Samaria or 
within the walls of Jeru- 
salem. Looked at broad- 
ly, Hebrew history during 

Assyrian Winged Lion. ^[ s w h l e period is a side 

eddy in the mighty inrush of Assyrian power, and 
when the tide of Assyrian conquest filled full the 
banks of the ancient world the Hebrew kingdoms were 
swept within it, as the ark of bulrushes in which the 
infant Moses was concealed in some cove of the Nile 
would have been swept out into the flood at the rising 
of the mighty river. 

We have already seen that the full generation of 
prosperity, which the two Hebrew kingdoms enjoyed 
during the reign of Jeroboam II and Uzziah, coin- 
cided with the period during which Damascus was ly- 
ing prostrate from the blows already inflicted by As- 
syria, and Assyria herself had passed into a decline. 
From this weakness the great empire was rescued by 
Tiglath-pileser III, who, after subduing his enemies in 
the east, reconquered northern Syria. Under Shal- 
maneser IV, Sargon and Sennacherib, the full storm 
burst on Palestine. The Assyrian advance partook of 
the energy and irresistibleness of an elemental force. 



Chapter 32. The Rod of Jehovah 



117 



It was like the sirocco of the desert. Before the tre- 
mendous Assyrian power all Palestine was over-run, 
except Jerusalem, which became a vassal state ; Egypt 
itself was invaded, and Thebes fell in 660. Ezekiel's 
famous description of Assyrian glory does not appear 
to be in the least exaggerated (Ezek. 31 : 3-9). 







An Assyrian Palace, Restored. 

When we remember that Nineveh fell only fifty-three 
years after the Assyrian conquest of Thebes, that the 
prophecies of Zephaniah and Nahum had almost im- 
mediate fulfilment, and that the crash of Assyrian 
power was so absolute that two centuries later the 
very locality of her capital had been forgotten, only to 
be determined beyond a doubt in 1845 A - D v we get 
a fresh and vivid impression of the suddenness and 
completeness with which the sceptre of world power 
was snatched from the victorious and arrogant hand 
of Assyria. It is probably well within the truth to 
say that there is no parallel in human history to the 
swiftness and totality of the destruction of Assyria. 

Though Amos foresaw the Assyrian conquest of 
Israel (6: 14), he did not foresee the fall of Assyria. 
That fact makes his attitude the more remarkable. 
What he did was to grasp with singular tenacity the 
truth that Assyria was wholly at the disposal of Je- 
hovah. He believed that Jehovah could not only give 



n8 Old Testament History 

the victory on occasion to His people, but that Assyria 
herself could do nothing that did not advance the pur- 
pose of Jehovah. Assyria, to his mind, was as abso- 
lutely in the hands of Jehovah as the Hebrew people. 

It is easy for us to see how this conviction gave rise 
to the serene confidence that marks the close of Amos- 
prophecy (9: 11-15). To his mind Assyria was sim- 
ply, as Isaiah phrased it, the axe with which Jehovah 
hewed, the saw, the rod, the staff that He wielded (Is. 
10:15). Amos said that the righteous Jehovah is 
the universal sovereign who controls the events of 
history so that the outcome will be the fulfilment of 
His righteous will, even though Israel falls before 
Assyria. When we set before our minds the historical 
circumstances in which this confidence on a world 
scale came to birth, we shall not be slow to recognize 
in the herdsman prophet an almost unmatched intensity 
and breadth of spiritual vision. 

It is a long journey from Amos and Samaria, alive 
to the Assyrian menace, to our own day, but what 
truth is there to which we come back, in our times 
of anxiety and dread, for consolation and confidence, 
but the truth which Amos saw so clearly ? God rules. 
We are in His hand. All men are in His hand. All 
history is but the revelation of His purpose. 

"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; 
But we will make mention of the name of 
Jehovah our God." Ps. 20:7." 

There come times when there are no chariots, and 
no horses, but there never comes a time when we 
cannot trust in God. 






Chapter 33. Trusting in Princes 119 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
TRUSTING IN PRINCES. 

2 Ki. 15 : 32—16 : 20; Is. 7 : 1—9 : 7. 

The Hebrews, up to the time of the captivity, never 
learned the lesson that Jehovah would protect the peo- 
ple whom He had delivered from Egypt with a mighty 
arm, if they were true to Him. David the shepherd 
lad could see in past mercies a token of present deliver- 
ance, when he said to Saul, "Jehovah that delivered 
me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the the paw of 
the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this 
Philistine" (1 Sam. 17:37). That was a height of 
faith to which the nation could not rise. 

We are now in the upper reaches of the rapids whose 
terrific swirl and rush are carrying Israel and Judah 
over the Niagara precipice, not only of national ruin, 
but of national extinction. The only possible deliver- 
ance was in the Hand that thrust back the waters of 
the Red Sea to make a highway out of Egypt. But, 
with a fatuity that exasperates and harrows the heart 
of the student of their history, they sought for help 
in every direction except where help was to be found. 
In the graphic figure of Jeremiah: "My people have 
committed two evils : they have forsaken me, the foun- 
tain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, 
broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jer. 2:13). 

The actual historical situation is quite clear. Tig- 
lath-pileser — the Pul of 2 Ki. 15:19 — who usurped 
the throne of Assyria in 745, was one of the great sov- 
ereigns of history. Like Julius Caesar and Napoleon 
he was equally great in the field as a general and in 
the council chamber as a statesman. All Assyria, to 
the remotest provinces, vibrated with the thrill of his 
masterly energy and administrative capacity. Damas- 
cus and Israel saw the thick-gathering clouds of the 
coming storm. Before the common peril, like savage 



120 



Old Testament History 




beasts in a cave when the thunderclap shakes the earth, 
they forgot their animosities, and made a hurried al- 
liance against the Assyrian. They saw the importance 
of the co-operation of Judah, and, since Ahaz, king of 
Judah, was unwilling to join them, they sought to com- 
pel the assistance 
of the southern 
kingdom, by be- 
sieging Jerusalem. 
They hoped to cap- 
ture the city, usurp 
the government 
and use the re- 
sources of the 
kingdom against 
the common en- 
emy. Ahaz was 

Tiglath-pileser in his Chariot. strQng enQUgh tQ 

repel this attack, but his situation was made 
exceedingly precarious by the invasions of the 
Edomites and Philistines, who never lost an 
opportunity to humble their hereditary enemies 
(2 Chron. 28:17, 18). At this juncture Isaiah 
lifted up his voice. He not only had been brought 
up and lived in Jerusalem, but he seems to have been 
of royal blood. He had begun to prophesy sixteen 
years before, and abstracts of his discourses up to this 
time are preserved in the first six chapters of the book 
that bears his name. 

Ahaz had reached the conviction that the best way- 
out of his difficulties was to seek the help of the great 
Assyrian against his enemies. Against this policy Isa- 
iah uttered his vehement protest. He saw two things 
clearly; that the two northern kingdoms, Damascus 
and Israel (Ephraim) were doomed before the victo- 
rious advance of Tiglath-pileser; they were only the 
stumps of two smoking torches, with the fire nearly 
out (Is. 7:4). He also saw that the intervention of 
Tiglath-pileser in the affairs of Palestine at the request 



Chapter 33. Trusting in Princes 



121 



of Judah meant that Judah would become as absolutely 
a province of Assyria as if it had been conquered by 
arms. The scheme of Ahaz meant certain destruction. 
The constructive policy of Isaiah is equally clear. The 
Assyrian king, he said, is certain to subjugate Damas- 
cus and Israel, the enemies that are now threatening 
Judah. Let events take their course, and let Judah 
trust in Jehovah's sovereign purpose for her. If Ju- 
dah served Jehovah with a perfect heart that purpose 
would involve the preservation of the whole nation. 
But, in spite of the general apostasy, there is in Judah 
a holy "remnant" (Is. 1:9) through which the divine 
purpose will be accomplished, and that involves the 
continued political existence of Judah. 

It may be impossible for us to describe with minute 
detail the "sign" which Isaiah gave to Ahaz (Is. 7: 
14). But Hebrew and Christian thought surely has 
not been astray is see- 
ing in his words (9: 
6, 7), a sublime con- 
fidence that Jehovah 
would inaugurate a 
new era of righteous- 
ness and peace through 
the birth and life and 
work of the promised 
Child. Whatever our 
construction of speci- 
fic words there runs 
through the descrip- 
tion of the confidence 
of Isaiah as a water- 
line runs through a sheet of paper, or as a figure 
gleams forth from a mosaic, the Messianic hope and 
promise. 

We can hardly imagine a more dramatic contrast 
than that between the weak and vacillating Ahaz, look- 
ing only on the things that are seen, and for that very 
reason deficient even in worldly wisdom, making his 




The Prophet Isaiah. 

By Michael Angelo. 



122 Old Testament History 

shallow and deceptive peace with the lord of Assyria 
(2 Ki. 16:7-10) and giving the Assyrian worship an 
equal place with that of Jehovah in Jerusalem (2 Ki. 
16:15-18), and Isaiah, looking at the unseen forces in 
human history, and for that very reason the more as- 
tute in practical statesmanship, confident of the ful- 
filment of the purpose of Jehovah. 

But even this contrast pales before the contrast be- 
tween Tiglath-pileser, the passing world-conqueror* 
and the Child that Isaiah saw. "And the government 
shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting 
Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his gov- 
ernment and of peace there shall be no end ... to 
establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with 
righteousness from henceforth even for ever" (Is. 
9:6,7). 



Chapter 34. Sin Bringeth Forth Death. 123 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

SIN BRINGETH FORTH DEATH. 
2 Ki. 15 : 8-31; eh. 17. 

To the eye of Amos the condition of the northern 
kingdom, even in the prosperous days of Jeroboam II, 
was symbolized by "a basket of summer fruit" (Amos 
8:1), fair to look upon, but dead ripe, and containing 
within itself the seeds of speedy destruction. 

The outward menace of the rising power of Assyria 
under Tiglath-pileser was supplemented by the inner 
menace of social and moral deterioration. The op- 
pression practiced by the privileged classes upon the 
people at large, the outrageous development and abuse 
of monopolies, aroused the fiercest indignation of the 
prophet, and indicated to him the near approach of a 
catastrophe. 

Hosea, who lived immediately before the fall of Sa- 
maria, saw all that Amos saw, but at closer range. In 
his time the "basket of summer fruit" had lost all its 
fairness, it was fast becoming a decaying and putre- 
fying mass. The hints that Hosea has given us of the 
internal condition of Israel reveal a state of affairs that 
would foretoken the fall of any state (Hos. chs. 4, 7). 
On the one hand, the nation had been dominated by 
such a spirit of faction that in the twenty years after 
the death of Jeroboam II, four of the six kings who 
succeeded him has been assassinated, and one carried 
away into captivity. The strife between the Assyrian 
and the anti-Assyrian parties had resulted in such a 
treacherous national policy toward Assyria that it was 
not strange that the great suzerain kingdom should 
have resolved to reduce its vassal to a position in which 
it would make no further trouble. On the other hand, 
the public and private vices that Amos denounced had 
reached such a pitch that the priesthood itself had be- 
come a center of corruption (Hos. 6:9). In the days 



124 



Old Testament History 



of Hosea the clouds that Amos saw upon the horizon 
had gathered themselves into a black and mighty mass 
from which the lightnings flashed. 

The thunderbolt fell twice upon the northern king- 
dom. In 734 b. a, Tiglath-pileser subdued all the ter- 
ritory of Israel, except the few miles about Samaria. 
On the death of the great king, Samaria sought to se- 
cure its freedom from Assyria by an alliance with 
Egypt (2 Ki. 17 : 4), but that was a vain hope, and Sar- 
gon — succeeding Shalmaneser IV, who had conquered 
all Samaria except the city — in y22 captured the city 
itself, weakened by pestilence and starvation, which 
was given up to plunder. Nearly thirty thousand of 
its' inhabitants were carried into captivity and an Assyr- 
ian governor, who could be trusted, was placed over 
those who were suffered to remain near the seats of 
their fathers. 




Assyrians Taking Away Captives and Spoil. 

The immediate or secondary causes of this catastro- 
phe, by which Israel lost its identity as a nation, are 
evident enough to any reader of the narrative in the 
books of Kings, with the light thrown upon it by Amos 
and Hosea. It is almost incredible, in view of the 
power of Assyria under Tiglath-pileser, and in view of 
the disorganization and corruption in Israel, that the 
kingdom should not fall. But all three writers — the 
author of the Kings and the prophets Amos and Hosea 
— unite in attributing the fall of Samaria to a cause 
that lies behind all these immediate and secondary 



Chapter 34. Sin Bringeth Forth Death 125 

causes. They all attribute the fall of Israel to the na- 
tion's apostasy from Jehovah. The prophecies read 
like a comment and exposition of the sober historical 
statement in the Kings: "And it was so, because the 
children of Israel had sinned against Jehovah their 
God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt 
from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had 
feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the 
nations, whom Jehovah cast out from before the chil- 
dren of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they 
made" (2 Ki. 17:7, 8). 

The Biblical writers look beyond the immediate oc- 
casion, and see the transcendent significance of the 
moral and spiritual factor in the developments of his- 
tory. Israel fell, they say, not because Tiglath-pileser 
was one of the great military geniuses of the world, 
and because he was followed by exceedingly able and 
determined men. Israel fell, they say, not because the 
spirit of faction and social injustice and immorality 
prevailed in the northern kingdom, but "it was so, 
because the children of Israel had sinned against 
Jehovah their God." The whole tremendous evolution 
is traced back to its moral and spiritual cause — apos- 
tasy from Jehovah. 

It does not militate against the correctness of this 
analysis that the political disorganization, the social 
injustice and the personal immoralities which were rife 
in Samaria were the direct outcome of Israel's in- 
fidelity to Jehovah, and that this political, social and 
moral condition ministered directly to the overthrow 
of the nation. Many, perhaps most, of the results of 
sin, manifest themselves in conditions which become 
the immediate causes of the penalty of sin. The 
course of vice, for example, which weakens mind and 
body, is, on the one hand, due to sin, and, on the other 
hand, the cause of one penalty of the sin. The im- 
mediate cause is a link between the sin and its penalty. 
But all of the results of sin do not sustain this 
relation. The sin of Israel was not the cause of the 



126 



Old Testament History 



military genius and administrative capacity of Tiglath- 
pileser, which pushed the borders of Assyria clear 
to the coasts of the Mediterranean, thus creating the 
awful menace to Israel. There is no link in the realm 
of human causation between the sin of Israel and the 
ability and policy of Tiglath-pileser, but there is such 
a link in the mind of God. And, as Amos and Isaiah 
saw so clearly, He can use Assyria or Egypt to visit 
upon Israel and Judah the penalties for their apostasy 
from Him. The resources of Jehovah to reward or to 
punish, to protect and deliver, or to overturn and de- 
stroy, are not measured by the natural sequences of 
events. 

"Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, 

Whose hope is in Jehovah his God: 

Who made heaven and earth, 

The sea, and all that in them is; . . . 

Jehovah loveth the righteous; . . . 

But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down." 

Ps. 146 : 5-9. 




Sargon, the Captor of Samaria, and 
his Vizier. 



Chapter 35. The Hand of Jehovah 127 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE HAND OF JEHOVAH. 
2 Ki. chs. 18-20. 

Isaiah believed that Jerusalem was inviolable. No 
matter how dark the prospect, even though Samaria 
fell before the advance of Assyria, he never once 
swerved from the conviction that Jerusalem was safe 
because she was the city of the Holy One of Israel If 
the forty-eighth Psalm, commemorates the deliverance 
of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, we hear in 
its exultant notes the song that was in the heart of 
Isaiah before prophecy had become history : 

"God hath made himself known in her palaces for a refuge. 
For, lo, the kings assembled themselves, 
They passed by together. 
They saw it, then were they amazed; 
They were dismayed, they hasted away. 
Trembling took hold of them there, 
Pain, as of a woman in travail. . . . 
As we have heard, so have we seen 

In the city of Jehovah of hosts, in the city of our God: 
God will establish it for ever." Ps. 48 : 3-6, 8. 

Isaiah had done his best to prevent Ahaz from seek- 
ing to gain the safety of Jerusalem by making the city 
a vassal of Assyria. He believed that the true policy 
of Judah was that of "splendid isolation." If she was 
to be saved it must be by the hand of Jehovah, and 
not by any alliances or agreements. There was no 
sound guarantee that the king of Assyria would re- 
spect the rights of a vassal when it would serve 
his purpose to> disregard them. In his opinion Ahaz 
had impoverished the kingdom and lost its indepen- 
dence for the sake of a promise that could not be 
trusted. 

After the death of Ahaz, for some reason that can 
only be conjectured, the Assyrian party in Jerusalem 
lost most of its following. Two policies then came to 



128 Old Testament History 

the front. A considerable faction thought that there 
was hope for Judah in an alliance with Egypt, which 
under the new Ethiopian dynasty, in the person of 
Shabaka, appeared to be entering upon a stronger in- 
ternational position. Isaiah led the party that was op- 
posed to this policy. Though he had bitterly opposed 
the agreement that made Judah a vassal of Assyria, 
yet he held that, since the agreement had been made, 
it should be adhered to. From a purely political point 
of view he utterly distrusted the strength and the prom- 
ises of Egypt. He saw clearly that, even if Egypt 
were strong and faithful, Judah, as the buffer state 
between Egypt and Assyria, would certainly be ground 
to powder in any conflict between these two great 
powers. 

The religious reforms of Hezekiah had the cordial 
support of Isaiah. They were more thorough than any 
previous king of Judah had attempted (2 Chron. chs. 
29-31). The prosperity and increase of national 
strength that accompanied them illuminates the habit- 
ual assertion of the historians and prophets that the 
people were afflicted because they "obeyed not the 
voice of Jehovah their God, but transgressed his cov- 
enant, even all that Moses the servant of Jehovah 
command, and would not hear it, nor do it" (2 Ki. 
18: 12). The author of the kings says of Hezekiah 
what had been said of no king since David, "Jehovah 
was with him," and he adds, "whithersoever he went 
forth he prospered" (2 Ki. 18:7). It seems to be 
clear that the kingdom' recovered from the poverty 
occasioned by the tribute of Ahaz to Assyria (2 Ki. 20: 
13 ; comp. 16 : 8), and that its territory was in part won 
back from the Philistines. The defenses of Jerusalem 
were greatly strengthened, and the provision made for 
a constant supply of water within the city by means of 
a subterranean passage (2 Ki. 20: 20; 2 Chron. 32: 30; 
Ecclus. 48: 17) which was discovered in 1880 a. d. 

If we were more certain of the chronology of the 
reign of Hezekiah we could speak more confidently 



Chapter 35. The Hand of Jehovah 



129 



of his policy in revolting from Assyria as an indication 
of his character. The strong probability seems to be 
that during the last years of Sargon all Palestine was 
seething with the spirit of revolt against Assyria. Sar- 




Hezekiah's Pool, Jerusalem. 

gon, however, met the first symptoms of actual rebel- 
lion with such swift vengeance that at the time of his 
death peace had been nominally restored. Largely 
through the efforts of Isaiah Judah kept out of this in- 
trigue against her suzerain. The politicians of West- 
ern Asia, however, regarded the assassination of Sar- 
gon in 705 b. c. as marking the close of an era. It did 
not seem probable that Tiglath-pileser and Sargon 
could be succeeded by a general as great as either of 
them. The fugitive king of Babylon, Merodach-bala- 
dan, who had been conquered by Sargon four years 
previously, returned to Babylon and raised the stand- 
ard of revolt against Assyria. If we place at this pe- 
riod the visit to Hezekiah of the ambassadors from 
Babylon (2 Ki. 20: 12, 13), ostensibly to congratulate 
him on his recovery from sickness, we see that this 
visit was a skilful attempt to draw Hezekiah into the 
Babylonian-Palestinian-Egyptian alliance against As- 
syria. Hezekiah was intensely flattered by this atten- 
tion, and revealed to the ambassadors all his resources. 
Thus Hezekiah, against the counsels of his wisest ad- 
viser, was drawn into the conspiracy, and "rebelled 
against the king of Assyria, and served him not." (2 



13° 



Old Testament History 



Ki. 18:7). Undoubtedly this policy was immensely 
popular in Jerusalem. It had all the marks of inde- 
pendence and high spirit that win general support. 

But a third eagle came forth from the royal nest of 
Assyria. Sennacherib immediately reduced Babylon, 

and then advanced 
upon Palestine, con- 
quering Phoenicia, 
the Palestine low- 
lands, Samaria and 
an Egyptian army 
that was hurrying 
north to the relief 
of the allies. The 
cylinders have pre- 
served a full account 
of this campaign 
from the Assyrian 
point of view. Heze- 
kiah at this juncture 
saw no way of es- 
cape but to make 
terms with Sen- 
nacherib by the pay- 
ment of an enormous indemnity (2 Ki. 18:14-16). 

We do not know how long this peace lasted, but the 
demand of Sennacherib for an unconditional surrender 
of Jerusalem was the almost inevitable result of the 
relation of Judah to Assyria. It was at this time that 
the faith of Isaiah rose to its loftiest height. The 
darker the situation to the eye of the statesman, the 
clearer it became to the vision of the prophet. The re- 
ply of Isaiah to the Rabshakeh matches the most heroic 
defiances of Greek or Roman history (2 Ki. 19:6). 

The situation was indeed desperate. It seemed as 
if the eagle were just about to swoop upon the dove. 
The watchers upon the walls of the city must have 
seen at night upon the horizon the gleam of the fires 
of the mighty Assyrian host. But Isaiah insisted that 




Sennacherib on his Throne. 

From the bas-relief of the capture of Lachish, 
■which occurred during- this invasion of Pales- 
tine. Found in the ruins of Sennacherib's pal- 
ace at Nineveh, and now in the British Museum. 



Chapter 35. The Hand of Jehovah 



131 



the Lord would defend the city and save it (2 Ki. 

19:34). 

And Jehovah vindicated the faith of His servant. 
In a single night "the angel of the Lord" smote the 
Assyrian host with a pestilence or a panic, and Jerusa- 
lem was saved. It was one of the great deliverances 
of history, and it showed that Isaiah had firmly grasped 
the central purpose of God, behind and beneath the 
events of his time. He saw that nothing, not even As- 
syria, could prevail against the purpose of Jehovah, 
and that kings, armies and empires were simply the 
instruments of His will. 



Jplplp^ 








■R 

mi 

fpft 






Muhl-fT—tfffri 










ir ,i . 



Sennacherib. 



132 



Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 
THE WORD OF THE LORD. 

2 Ki. 21 : 1—23 : 30; Jer. 11 : 1-8. 

Throughout the reign of Manasseh there was a 
strong reaction from the reforms instituted by Heze- 
kiah. In a sense this reaction was inevitable. The 
measures of Hezekiah were those of 
the typical Puritan, who relies quite 
as much upon force as upon com- 
mending his ideas to the conscious- 
ness of others. The excesses of the 
reign of Charles II in England re- 
peated the story of the reign of Man- 
asseh in Judah. The king was made 
a captive and with great indignities 
carried to Babylon. His name is 
found upon the monuments, where 
he is recorded as one of the tributary 
kings of Esar-haddon. The reforms 
of Manasseh's mature age did not 
strike deep root, and there was not 
much religious improvement through- 
From the monuments. ut the nation, until the young Josiah 
came to the throne. 

For six years Josiah had been zealously uprooting 
idolatry. But he had made comparatively little 
progress toward a thorough reform until one of those 
apparently trivial incidents occurred upon which great 
issues often turn, and forthwith Josiah's work received 
a marked spiritual impulse. 

That incident was the discovery, during some re- 
pairs upon the temple, of a copy of "the book of the 
law." Some suppose that this scroll was the entire 
Pentateuch ; others that it was the whole or the major 
part of the book of Deuteronomy. The data for de- 
termining which view is correct are variously inter- 




Esar-haddon. 






Chapter 36. The Word of the Lord 133 

preted, and the answers, while of importance to the 
Biblical critic, would not affect, in the least, the 
religious significance of the narrative. 

Whatever the nature of the book, or its origin, it is 
clear, in the first place, from the consternation with 
which the king and the people listened to the reading, 
that its contents came as a fresh disclosure of the will 
of Jehovah, and, in the second place, that these con- 
tents, whoever the author may have been, were con- 
firmed as a trustworthy divine revelation by the proph- 
etess Huldah (2 Ki. 22: 14-20) and by Jeremiah the 
prophet (Jer. 11 : 1-5). 

We may note in passing that while to-day the print- 
ing press has made it impossible that the Bible should 
be lost as a volume of literature, it is possible for the 
revelation of the Most High to sink out of our con- 
sciousness, through our indifference to it, as it sank 
out of the consciousness of Judah. Or, when we are 
not indifferent to it, we may easily suffer the in- 
terpretations or opinions of some men, who have hap- 
pened to write books or creeds, to take the place of 
first-hand, open-eyed, open-hearted study of the Scrip- 
tures. When we do that we are in danger of losing 
the Word of the Lord. It is the duty of all Chris- 
tians to assert their liberty in this matter, and to vindi- 
cate their liberty by conscientious personal study of the 
holy writings. Water that has been standing in a 
pitcher for a week we refuse to drink, unless we can 
get no other. At a fountain each wishes his own 
fresh draught. But in spiritual things we are wont 
to desert the fountain, and to drink what others have 
drawn and bring to our doors in musty barrels. It is 
wonderful how, when one with a reverent heart goes 
to the Scriptures for himself, he finds in them refresh- 
ment, strength and guidance. Then for the first time 
he finds the Book. 

We can see at once what the discovery of this book 
meant to the reforms of Josiah. For one thing it 
gave Josiah and those who were with him in his work 



134 Old Testament History 

a new basis for faith. Up to this time Josiah had been 
prompted by his own conscience and his perception 
of what was wise and right, corroborated by the proph- 
etic reaction and the early preaching of Jeremiah. 
The discovery of this scroll gave him a new and con- 
clusive divine warrant for what he was doing. 

Those who prosecute unpopular reforms must 
often experience moments of supreme loneliness. They 
must find themselves inadvertently asking, "Is it pos- 
sible that I am right about this thing and every one 
else wrong?" The strength of the great reformers 
has not been that their stubborn self-will was enough 
to carry them against the world. Their strength has 
been that, like Moses, they "saw the invisible." That 
was the experience of Josiah. Ewald, the great 
German historian of Israel, observes that "the dis- 
covery of this book gave a strong momentum to the 
reforms of Josiah, which had begun to lag." It must 
have been so. Now Josiah felt that his work rest- 
ed upon a specific divine warrant, wholly external to 
himself, revealed to him in the providential discov- 
ery of this scroll. Our confidence in our plans is 
greatly strengthened when our wisest friends confirm 
our judgment. Josiah felt that the Most High Him- 
self had confirmed his enterprise. 

Then, too, we can hardly miss seeing how this dis- 
covery of "the book of the law" enlarged Josiah's 
outlook. With the scroll before him the true 
course of national reformation was plain. The book 
did not simply reveal the extent of the nation's de- 
parture from God — its sin — but it illuminated the way 
to a better life. We do well always to remember this 
double aspect of every divine revelation. Through- 
out the Scriptures God's calls to men are calls to 
blessedness. The disclosures of the nature of sin and 
its penalties, the stern prohibitions and almost heart- 
breaking warnings, are incidental to the great end of 
leading men to a broad, noble and happy life. It is 
the secular life that becomes narrow, bigoted, sordid, 



Chapter 36. The Word of the Lord 135 

self-limited and selfish. It is the life to which God calls 
men that becomes larger, fuller, finer, and that expands 
into the freedom of a sonship to which the whole wide 
universe is the Father's house. The great poem of 
praise of the divine law says 

"I have seen an end of all perfection; 
But thy commandment is exceeding broad." 

Ps. 119: 96. 

It is broad in itself, and it broadens the outlook of the 
man who receives it. 

The men who found that scroll of the law in the 
temple treasury came upon a far better thing than a 
great hoard of money. The words upon a parchment, 
that could be traced with a pen or uttered with a 
breath, were the most precious gift that could have 
come to Josiah or to Jerusalem:. They confirmed a 
noble purpose, and they pointed the way to the noblest 
future. 

The best gift we can bestow upon another is not 
any material thing whatever. The best gift is a word, 
some words of God, some fragment of His message to 
men — words that find some of their interpretation in 
our own hope and faith and love. We cannot give 
any one a choicer gift than that. 



136 



Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

THE CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM. 
2 Ki. 23 : 31—24 : 17; Jer. ch. 36. 

Nineveh, which had ruled the Semitic world with 

a rod of iron for two centuries, fell in 607 b. c, before 

the united armies of the Medes, under Cyaxares, and 

of the Babylonians (Chaldeans) under Nabopolassar. 

The tokens of the coming of this event could be 

seen many months be- 
fore it took place. Both 
Josiah of Judah and 
Nebah, the Pharaoh of 
Egypt, were alert to 
take advantage of the 
feebleness of the pow- 
er that had been their 
mighty over-lord. The 
former improved the 
opportunity to enlarge 
his kingdom so that it 
extended nearly to its 
old borders. The lat- 
ter sought to push the 
power oi Egypt even to 
the Euphrates. Josiah lost his life at the battle of Me- 
giddo (608 b. c), in which he attempted to dispute the 
passage of Necoh across his territory. The death 
of Josiah was a staggering event to the prophetical 
party which had supported his reform policies. They 
found it difficult to explain how Jehovah could per- 
mit such a disaster to so loyal a servant. The im- 
mediate effect of this battle was to make Judah the 
compulsory vassal of Egypt, but Necoh, intent on 
availing himself of the weakness of Nineveh, did not 
delay his advance to interfere with the internal affairs 
of Jerusalem. The prophetical party which held pos- 




Pharaoh-necoh. 
From the monuments. 



Chapter 37. The Capture of Jerusalem 137 

session in Judah at once chose Jehoahaz, the younger 
son of Judah, as king, probably because he was friend- 
ly to their policy. When, three months later, Necoh 
gave his attention to the affairs of Judah, he deposed 
Jehoahaz and sent him in chains to Egypt (2 Ki. 23: 
33) giving the throne of Judah to Eliakim (Jehoi- 
akim), the eldest son of Josiah. 

The ambitious plans of Necoh soon came to a halt. 
He had penetrated as far as the Euphrates, and per- 
haps may be said to have subjugated Western Asia, 
but he held dominion by an insecure tenure until he 
should have actually vanquished the rising power of 
Babylon, before which Nineveh had fallen. The 
royal house of Babylon, like that of Nineveh in the 
line of Tiglath-pileser, was singularly fortunate in the 
military capacity of its successive representatives, and 
there are few names in the history of warfare greater 
than that of Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, 
the conqueror of Nineveh. Nebuchadnezzar, the 
crown prince, met Necoh in battle near Carchemish on 
the Euphrates. The result was an overwhelming vic- 
tory for the arms of Babylon. "They are dismayed 
and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are 
beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: 
terror is on every side" (Jer. 46:5). Many his- 
torians regard the battle of Carchemish as one of the 
decisive battles of the world. Certainly it settled 
whether the principal influence in the development of 
civilization was to be that of Babylon or that of Egypt. 

Jeremiah, like Nahum, twenty years before, saw that 
no kingdom of Western Asia could make head against 
Babylon, which had succeeded to all the power of 
Assyria, and might even enhance it. But he took 
comfort in the philosophy of history that Amos had 
first promulgated, and that Isaiah had applied to the 
conquests of Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar is the ser- 
vant of Jehovah, the instrument by which He ac- 
complishes His purposes (Jer. 43:10). But the 
thought of Jeremiah is an advance upon that of Isaiah. 



138 



Old Testament History 




To Isaiah Assyria was the instrument of Jehovah to 
chastise Israel ; to Jeremiah Babylon is the instrument 
of Jehovah to destroy Israel as a nation. Out of 
this catastrophe was to emerge the spiritual Israel 
composed of individual souls loyal to Jehovah. 

Jeremiah's political 
counsel was that the 
kingdom should remain 
loyal to its lawful suz- 
erain, Babylon, which 
had legally succeeded to 
the rights of Assyria. 
This was the only 
course that promised 
safety. In advocating 
this policy Jeremiah put 
himself into sharp an- 
tagonism with the king 
and the entire court 
party. 

For a long time Jere- 
miah seems to have hoped that thorough repentance, 
on the part of the king and the people might lead Je- 
hovah to avert the threatening peril. Surely he could 
deliver Jerusalem from Nebuchadnezzar, as He had de- 
livered her from Sennacherib. But Jehoiakim repeated 
the worst excesses and idolatries of the period of Man- 
asseh. 

Jeremiah resorted to a unique device to get his 
views impressively before the nation — a significant 
evidence that, even at this late date, the kingship in 
Judah was amenable to the voice of the people. He 
collected the substance of his prophecies during the 
last twenty-three years, and induced Baruch to read 
them to the people, assembled in the temple-court 
during one of the great national gatherings. These 
prophecies had only an indirect bearing upon the im- 
mediate political situation. Their burden was the 
proclamation of the necessity of righteousness and 



The Prophet Jeremiah. 
By Michael Angelo. 



Chapter 37. The Capture of Jerusalem 139 

justice, and of fidelity to the law and worship of Jeho- 
vah ; the certainty of judgment, and the duty of im- 
mediate repentance. Whatever the opinions of the 
people about the political policy Jeremiah advocated, 
this review of his prophecies would naturally convince 
them that he had spoken the word of Jehovah, and 
that even his political counsel was entitled to singu- 
lar weight. 

Jeremiah said that Jehoiakim should have the burial 
of an ass (Jer. 22: 19). It may not be unfair to see 
in this forecast the prophet's estimate of his character. 
The conduct of the king when he examined the roll of 
the prophecies completely vindicated this judgment. 
"And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or 
four leaves, that the king cut it with the penknife, and 
cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all 
the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the 
brazier" (Jer. 36:23). Jehoiakim has had many imi- 
tators. He failed to distinguish between truth and 
the witness for it; between the eternal reality and 
the evidence for it. In destroying the witness or the 
evidence men do not touch the truth. That remains just 
what it was before. All they have done is to block 
up or destroy some of the channels through which the 
truth was coming to them. They have deprived them- 
selves of some of the means of adjusting themselves 
to the truth. The reality of things, the counsel of 
the Most High, is not changed or affected a whit. 

Jehoiakim pursued his policy of headlong folly. The 
engagement of Nebuchadnezzar with the home prov- 
inces led Jehoiakim to play small politics with the 
Egyptian court. It was the worst example of in- 
triguing with a minority, for Egypt had been thorough- 
ly beaten, and a child could have seen that her promises 
were vain. She had more to hope from Judah than 
Judah from, her. At length, about four years after 
the succession of Nebuchadnezzar to the throne of 
Babylon, just as he was gaining a free hand to deal 
with the western problem, Jehoiakim renounced his 



140 



Old Testament History 



allegiance. At first Nebuchadnezzar looked at the 
new situation in a large way. His opinion of the 
character of Jehoiakim probably resembled that of 
Jeremiah. Really great men, however they may differ 
in race or position, have substantially identical judg- 
ments of character; Nebuchadnezzar seems to have 
thought that if he gave the king of Judah rope enough 
he would hang himself. He was probably right. But 
when the delay of the catastrophe became troublesome 
he took the field himself. Before the Chaldean army 
invested Jerusalem, however, the king of Judah died, 
and the results of wickedness and folly fell upon the 
lad of eighteen, Jehoiachin, who reigned only three 
months. 

In five verses (2 Ki. 24: 12-16) the writer of the 
book of Kings describes the surrender of the city, and 
the beginning of the captivity in Babylon. We are 
aware as we read it that a tremendous episode in hu- 
man history is closing in a way that belies its early 
promise. We seem to see the precious vessels torn 
from the temple, the royal household and the princes 
leading a forlorn procession of captives to the camp 
of Nebuchadnezzar; we hear the groans of strong 
men, and the cries and sobs of women. The beauty 
of Israel is slain upon her high places. 




From "Glimpses of Bible Lands.'' 
The So-called Tombs of the Kings at 
Jerusalem. 



Chapter 38. The Fulfilment of Doom 141 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE FULFILMENT OF DOOM. 
2 Ki. 24 : 18—25 : 21; Jer. chs. 37, 38. 

Between the capture and the final destruction of 
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar there is a respite of 
eleven years. It was no part of the colonial policy 
of Assyria or Babylon to do any more injury to a con- 
quered region than was necessary to guard against fu- 
ture insurrection. Usually a considerable number of 
the prominent men and their families were deported to 
a distant settlement, and those who remained were 
ruled by a trustworthy governor of their own race. This 
was the procedure of Nebuchadnezzar upon the capture 
of Jerusalem in 597 b. c. (2 Ki. 24 : 14-16). 

The new governor of Jerusalem was Zedekiah (Mat- 
taniah), the youngest son of Josiah and the full brother 
of Jehoahaz, who had been deposed by Necoh. 

Thus Jerusalem was given another and last oppor- 
tunity to continue as a semi-independent Hebrew cit|r 
under the overlordship of Babylon. Strangely enough, 
the nation, which in the days of Isaiah had refused to 
believe the word of Jehovah that He would save the 
city, in the days of Jeremiah had a fatalistic confi- 
dence in its inviolability, though the prophet of Je- 
hovah declared that it would fall. But this is only 
an illustration on a large scale of the familiar truth 
that those who find the revelation of the Most High 
incredible will often give their full confidence to 
unsupported theories or to silly conjectures. 

There were only too good grounds in the situation 
for believing that Jeremiah's forecast would be ful- 
filled. The controlling fact was that the people who 
remained in Jerusalem did not show the slightest in- 
clination to repent and return to their allegiance to 
Jehovah. To be sure, when Nebuchadnezzar laid 
siege to the city, and the realities of war confronted 



142 Old Testament History 

them, they turned frantically to Jehovah, and solemn- 
ly engaged to observe the law as to the freedom of 
slaves (Jer. 34:8; Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:12). But, 
during the respite occasioned by the departure of 
Nebuchadnezzar to engage the Egyptian army, when 
they thought that they were saved, their religious zeal 
for the service of Jehovah at once evaporated, and 
without delay they broke their recent pledge (Jer. 
34 : 1 1 ) . Nothing could better illustrate their half- 
hearted and purely self-interested service of Jehovah. 
As a matter of fact, the capture of Jerusalem in 597 
b. c. had so profoundly shaken the faith of the peo- 
ple in Jehovah (Ezek. 8:12) that a mixture of idola- 
tries, consisting of Phoenician, Syrian and Chaldean 
superstitions, was strongly established. The return to 
Jehovah, just mentioned, was simply a resort to any- 
thing that might save them. But it mattered not 
what alliances Judah might make with Egypt, Tyre and 
Ammon (Ezek. 17: 15), there was no help for her so 
long as by her sin she arrayed Jehovah against her. 
The Hebrew poet wrote : 

"Jehovah is my light and my salvation; 
Whom shall 1 fear? 

Though a host should encamp against me, 
My heart shall not fear; 
Though war should rise against me, 
Even then will I be confident." Ps. 27: 1, 3. 

And the converse is equally true : 

"There is no king saved by the multitude of a host; 
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength." 

Ps. 33 : 16. 

The resources, the alliances, the courage of Jerusalem 
were all in vain when Jehovah was arrayed against 
her. 

One reads the narrative of the series of events pre- 
ceding the fall of the city as one would follow the un- 
folding of a tragedy the inevitable issue of which is 
seen from afar. There are rays of light and gleams 
of hope. Sometimes it seems as if all were not lost. 



Chapter 38. The Fulfilment of Doom 143 

Jeremiah is in the city speaking the word of the 
Lord, and, though his prophecies are so explicit, we 
sometimes feel that they may be conditional. The 
secret interview of Zedekiah with Jeremiah (Jer. 
37: 17-21) indicates the king's doubt as to the wisdom 
of his course, and the rescue of Jeremiah by the Ethio- 
pian (Jer. 38: 7-13) shows that at least one true-heart- 
ed man recognized the fidelity of the prophet to his 
mission. And then, too, the alliance with Egypt and 
Tyre and Ammon promised much, for Egypt was re- 
gaining her international position, and Hophra, the 
new Pharaoh, seemed to be strong enough to render 
Zedekiah effective aid ( Jer. 44 : 30) . Who would have 
supposed that at just this juncture Nebuchadnezzar 
was to demonstrate that he was one of the great mili- 
tary geniuses of history? 

Still, the other aspects of the situation were very 
dark. Indeed, the reasons for hope only served to 
throw into stronger relief the inevitableness of the 
approaching doom. Judah is Laocoon struggling in 
the folds of the serpent. Her very efforts to extri- 
cate herself bind her the tighter. We have only to 
recall the subserviency of Zedekiah to "the princes," 



Anathotli, Jeremiah's Birthplace. 

who were utterly without insight into the situation, — 
his subjection to them was so complete that Jeremiah 
puts a taunting song into the mouths of the women of 
the harem (Jer. 38 122), — the imprisonment of the 
prophet of Jehovah (Jer. 37 -.15; 38 :6), and Zede- 



144 



Old Testament History 



kiah's violation of his oath to Nebuchadnezzar, which 
the author of the book of Kings (2 Ki. 24:20) and 
the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 17: 12-15) regarded as a 
detestable breach of faith, almost justifying Nebu- 
chadnezzar in making thorough work of pacifying 
Western Asia. 

Slowly but inexorably the doom comes. The city 
was defended with superb courage. The book of 
Lamentations graphically sets 
before us some of the horrors 
of the siege (2:19-22; 4:10). 
Jerusalem fell in the summer of 
586 b. c. The most influential 
citizens were deported (2 Ki. 
25 : 12) ; practically everything 
of value was seized as a war in- 
demnity (vss. 13-18) ; the walls 
were broken down, the temple, 
the palaces and the princi- 
pal houses burned (vss. 9, 
10), and the leading citizens 
put to death (vss. 19-22). 
Zedekiah, after witnessing the 
execution of his two sons, 
had his eyes put out. Jo- 
sephus cites the fate of the king 
as a remarkable fulfilment of 
Comer of the wail around two apparently contradictory 
the Temple Area. prophecies (Jer. 34:3; Ezek. 

This wall runs 80 feet below 12: I 3 ) . 
the surface of the ground to t»i_ r n r t 1 • r 

-the solid rock. Many of the 1 he fall of Jerusalem is one 01 

great btones have remained in , i , , j « • , , 

position as they were originally the niOSt tremenaOUS object leS- 
iud in Solomon's time. ^ ^ wQrld ^ ^ ^ q£ 

the results of disloyalty to the Most High. There have 
been catastrophes as appalling, but the interior sig- 
nificance of this one has been interpreted by the proph- 
ets. We are left in no manner of doubt that Jeru- 
salem fell when Jehovah, who had shielded her from 
Sennacherib, withdrew His hand because the measure 




Chapter 38. The Fulfilment of Doom 145 

of her disloyalties was full. The destruction as well as 
the protection of Jerusalem showed that there was a 
God in Israel. 

And yet the purpose of the Most High was not ut- 
terly thwarted by the wrath of man. The ideas, the 
hopes, the faith that made Judah the nation of Je- 
hovah, the custodian of the highest revelation the 
world had known, were guarded by the little colony 
in Babylonia, and it was from this little group of 
exiles, purged by trouble of the last traces of poly- 
theism, that there came the splendid light of the later 
prophets. 




Jeremiah's Grotto. 



146 Old Testament History 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
REVIEW OF CHAPTERS 27-38. 

Several important truths are brought into a clear 
light when we examine, in a broad way, the three cen- 
turies and a half of Hebrew history which intervene 
between the division of the kingdom on the death of 
Solomon and the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebur 
chadnezzar. 

One is that the development of Israel is inex- 
tricably connected with the political institutions, the 
imperial ambitions and the colonial policies of the sur- 
rounding nations. Yon can no more isolate the his- 
tory of the Hebrews from contemporary movements 
in other nations than you can isolate a tree from; the 
soil in which it grows and have it remain a vital or- 
ganism. The rivalries of Phoenicia and Damascus, 
of Egypt and Assyria, of Assyria and Babylon, and of 
Babylon and Egypt register themselves as clearly in 
the history of the Hebrew kingdoms, recorded in the 
Old Testament as the leagues between Germany, Aus- 
tria and Italy on the one hand, and between Russia 
and France on the other, register themselves in the his- 
tory of Great Britain during the last decade. 

An important inference from this fact is that in 
order to understand the Bible we must understand a 
great many things outside the Bible. It is not too 
much to say that modern explorations in Egypt, As- 
syria and Chaldea are making the Old Testament a new 
book, instinct with life and reality. But a much more 
important inference is that no providence in the history 
of Israel is possible unless there is an equal providence 
over all nations, so that all their policies, in a true 
sense, are controlled by Him, and are as responsive to 
His purpose as the instrument in the hand of a skilful 
engraver to the working out of his design. Amos was 
the first to reach this conclusion from a somewhat 



Chapter 39. Review of Chapters 27-38 147 

different point of view. He argued that the similar- 
ity of moral results among all peoples indicated that 
Jehovah was the supreme ruler of all nations. When 
we have an extended period of history before us like 
these three centuries and a half of the life of the He- 
brew race, we see at once that, if the record discloses 
the progressive fulfilment of a purpose, as this cer- 
tainly does, it must be because the complicated rela- 
tions and reactions between Israel and the rest of the 
world were in the hands of the Most High. 

Indeed, if history is anything more than a chronicle 
of unrelated events, if it has an interior, genetic unity, 
and is a movement that fulfils a purpose, the great 
generalization of Amos is inevitable. Tiglath-pileser 
is as truly the servant of the Most High as Hezekiah. 
Perhaps not even yet has the Christian world appre- 
hended the full import of this truth. But it is be- 
cause God holds this relation to human history, which 
these Hebrew records indicate, that we have the strong- 
est pledge of the ultimate triumph of righteousness in 
the earth. The victory of the kingdom of Christ 
depends on this relation of God to human history (Mt. 
28:18). 

Another truth, reflected in all this development, is 
the power of the human will to resist the Most High. 
We have seen this illustrated over and over ag-ain in 
the records of Israel and Judah. Neither kings nor 
people would heed the prophets. If there seems to 
be a contradiction between this truth and the one to 
which we have just referred, let us remember that 
the apparent antagonism is that between any theory 
of the divine sovereignty and of human freedom. 
Neither Calvinism nor Arminianism has ever been sat- 
isfactorily answered. The solution of this problem, 
like that of the question of the origin of evil, into 
which it runs back, is probably beyond the faculties of 
man. The facts of the case, however, as brought out 
in the Scripture and in human experience, are suffi- 
ciently evident. Men can refuse to obey God, but the 



148 Old Testament History. 

resources of God to accomplish His purposes are not 
limited to those means He would employ if men were 
obedient. We can easily conceive, for example, that 
the kingdom of David might have been perpetuated as 
a unit, and that kings and people might have been so 
devoted to the law of Jehovah that the history of Is- 
rael would have been the record of increasing devotion 
to righteousness and of spiritual enlightenment. But 
when the Hebrew people, in both branches, proved 
untrue to their high mission, the purpose of God 
that this race should be the bearers of a true spiritual 
revelation to the whole world was not thwarted. The 
ideal way of achieving this result, through the loyal 
obedience of the Hebrew people, was thwarted, but 
the divine purpose swept on to its fulfilment, as a 
mighty river in the times of its flood sweeps toward 
the sea around the sand bar that would stay its 
course, or carries it away. 

Time and again, as one follows the unfolding of 
this tremendous drama, one feels the futility of hoping 
that the light that was in the Hebrew people through 
the revelation of Jehovah' may not be extinguished. 
The fall of the northern kingdom removes, at a stroke. 
a strong support of human confidence. The destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem apparently closes the whole story in 
complete overthrow and ruin. The results of dis- 
loyalty to Jehovah are illustrated on a vast and im- 
pressive scale, but the confidence of a few men that 
Jehovah would not permit His purpose of blessing' the 
whole world through His Chosen People utterly to fail 
was triumphantly vindicated in the later history. The 
captivity itself proved to be the fire that purified, not 
the flame that destroved. The exiles found that Je- 
hovah ruled in Babylon as truly as in Jerusalem. "Je- 
hovah of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and ex- 
cellent in wisdom" (Is. 28: 29) is a constantly present 
force in history, and He controls the issues. 



Chapter 40. Progressive Deterioration 149 



CHAPTER XL. 

PROGRESSIVE DETERIORATION. 
2 Ki. 25 : 22-26; Jer. chs. 40-44. 

After the fall of Jerusalem the current of Hebrew 
history divides into two branches. The future of the 
exiles in Babylonia is almost entirely distinct from 
that of the survivors of the Hebrew state who re- 
mained in Judah. It is with the fortunes of the lat- 
ter that we are now concerned. 

The overwhelming calamities that had come upon 
Jerusalem, because of the national apostasy from Je- 
hovah, did not result in weaning the survivors who 
remained in Judah from their idolatries, so that they 
returned to their allegiance to Jehovah. We do not 
owe the pure spiritual monotheism, which is the tran- 
scendent gift of Israel to the world, to the section of 
the Hebrews which remained in Judah; we owe it 
almost wholly to the exiles in Babylonia. 

Indeed, the story of the survivors in Judah affords 
a vivid illustration of the tendency of evil to propagate 
itself in widening circles, and to overcome the forces 
that might tend to reformation and to the restoration 
of moral health. There is an evolution downward as 
well as upward, and many pages of human history 
illustrate the development of the forces of decay, dis- 
solution and death. This is the case in the story of 
the Judean Hebrews. The events of the past taught 
them nothing. Those who hold that calamities and 
penalties are necessarilly remedial, and that men can 
be brought back to the right path by experiencing the 
results of their evil courses, find scant support for 
their theories in this epoch of Biblical history, or, 
for that matter, in many of the usual manifestations of 
human nature. 

The narrative gives us several suggestions as to 
the process of this increasing deterioration. For one 



150 Old Testament History 

thing, the Judean Hebrews found that the course of 
events was peculiarly unfavorable to the social unity 
and order which were the necessary conditions of a 
strong reformatory movement. We have a proverb 
that misfortunes never come singly. There is a rea- 
son for that saying. The misadventure or calamity 
that disturbs settled conditions affects larger relations 
than are at first apparent. In war, for example, the 
defeat of a nation not only changes its relation to 
its antagonist, but to other nations, who are alert to 
utilize its weakness for their own aggrandizement, and 
so one calamity draws others in its train. That was 
the case in Palestine. The neighboring provinces were 
eager to avail themselves of the weakness of Judah, 
and were glad to promote anarchy in that territory so 
that the fulfilment of their ambitions might be the eas- 
ier. Nebuchadnezzar had appointed Gedaliah (Jer. 
26:24; 2 Ki. 22:9), a trusty Hebrew noble who had 
advocated Jeremiah's policy of submission to Babylon, 
as governor of the Judean survivors, who probably 
greatly outnumbered those who were deported to 
Babylon. Gedaliah had succeeded in reducing the 
country to order, and excellent harvests had encour- 
aged the people. At this juncture the king of Ammon 
found in Ishmael, a renegade Judean prince, a tool 
to his hand. Gedaliah was assassinated, and all those 
who had rallied about him were thrown into the utmost 
confusion. When we think that we can put a term to 
the sequences of wrong-doing, it is wholesome to re- 
flect that even the terrific catastrophe of the fall of 
Jerusalem did not cut off and close the results of Is- 
rael's departure from Jehovah. It seems sometimes 
as if wrong-doing arrayed events themselves and the 
course of nature against the transgressor. 

Another step in this process was the increasing in- 
difference of the people to the prophet of Jehovah. 
After the assassination of Gedaliah a common impulse 
seized the people to find a refuge in Egypt. There 
were some strong reasons for this, especially as a 



Chapter 40. Progressive Deterioration 151 

fresh deportation of Hebrews to Babylon seems to have 
taken place after the affront to Chaldean authority by 
the murder of the governor (Jer. 52: 30). But Jere- 
miah, who had been suffered to leave the chain-gang of 
exiles, and had rejoined his countrymen in Judah, saw 
that, as in all the past, Egypt was a staff that pierced 
the hand of the one leaning upon it. He foretold that 
the reigning Pharaoh would fall into the hands of 
Nebuchadnezzar. He said that their true course was 
to remain in Palestine, loyal to the suzerainty of Chal- 
dea. One would think that Jeremiah's devotion to the 
interests of the people, and the vindication events had 
given to his previous utterances, would have made him 
a trusted leader as the mouthpiece of Jehovah, but 
their own wisdom was better to the people than any 
word of Jehovah. 

We may notice in passing that events completely 
justified the forecast of Jeremiah, and though a passage 
in Ezekiel indicates that the Egyptian Jews may have 
had a considerable part in the restoration of their 
people to Jerusalem (Ezek. 29: 17-21), only a few of 
them became influential in the subsequent history of 
Palestine. 

Another step may be seen in their blindness to the 
true cause of their calamities. A Chaldean soldier, 
looking at the course of events from a purely external 
point of view, described with precision the causes of 
the fall of Jerusalem : "And the captain of the guard 
took Jeremiah, and said unto him, Jehovah thy God 
pronounced this evil upon this place; and Jehovah 
hath brought it, and done according as he spake; be- 
cause ye have sinned against Jehovah, and have not 
obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you" 
(Jer. 40: 2, 3). This word of the Chaldean captain of 
the guard reminds one of the exclamation of the Ro- 
man centurion after the crucifixion of Jesus (Mt. 
27:54). But when Jeremiah confronted the women 
who worshiped Ashtoreth with the fact of their apos- 
tasy from Jehovah as the cause of the nation's ca- 



152 Old Testament History 

lamity, they replied : "Since we left off burning incense 
to the queen of heaven, and pouring out drink-offerings 
unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been 
consumed by the sword and by the famine" (Jer. 
44: 18). It is difficult to say how far such reason- 
ing is sincere, and how far a pretext for self-excuse. 
But there can be no doubt that wrong-doing sometimes 
so blunts the moral perceptions that men lose the ca- 
pacity of moral discrimination, and fail to distinguish 
between good and evil. This is the state that Jesus 
describes as beyond recovery (Mt. 12:24-31). 

Taken as a whole, this Biblical record of the evolu- 
tion of evil throws into salient relief the fact that sin 
contains in itself the means of its own punishment. 
On the one hand, it so arrays the sequences of events 
against itself, that the beginning of a sinful course 
is like the opening of waters. On the other hand, the 
gravest penaltv of sin is the increasing disposition to 
sin — moral indifference and moral blindness. 



Chapter 41. The Evolution of Good 153 



CHAPTER XLI. 

THE EVOLUTION OF GOOD. 

Jer. chs. 24, 29 ; Ezek. chs. 1-20 

The company of ten thousand Hebrews, which made 
up Nebuchadnezzar's first deportation from Judah to 
Babylon (597 b. c.) comprised the choicest elements 
of the Hebrew State. From these exiles came the no- 
ble religious idealism and moral impulse that we asso- 
ciate with historic Judaism. 

There are some indications that the group of He- 
brews deported after the assassination of Gedaliah was 
practically enslaved (Ezek. 34: 2j). If that was so, it 
was due to the fact that Nebuchadnezzar must have 
been peculiarly exasperated by the murder of his lieu- 
tenant. 

The first group of exiles, which had been carried 
to Babylon after the revolt of Jehoiakim, 597 b. a, en- 




Ruins on the Site of Babylon. 

joyed virtual self-government in one of the most de- 
sirable provinces of the empire. They appear to have 
adopted the counsel of Jeremiah (Jer. 29: 5-8), and 
to have set themselves to the development of their re- 
sources. Still, no pleasantness of material conditions 
could obliterate their longing for their ancestral home 
— the land of the great promise of Jehovah ( Pss. 42, 43, 
137), nor could it silence their restless inquiry for the 



154 Old Testament History 

true interpretation of the disaster that had overtaken 
the city of the Holy One of Israel and the impending 
total loss of their place as a people among the nations 
of the earth. 

We best appreciate the mission of the prophet Eze- 
kiel when we realize that the main part of his message 
is addressed to the state of mind occasioned by this in- 
quiry. As soon as the exiles recovered consciousness 
from the stunning effects of the blows dealt by Neb- 
uchadnezzar, they asked what do these disasters 
mean? That Jehovah has withdrawn Himself from 
Israel (Lam. 5:20; Ezek. 8:12)? That the mission 
of Israel is a total failure ? 

Ezekiel's answer to such questions is the answer 
made by all the prophets. He says that Jehovah, who 
absolutely controls the forces of history, has suffered 
these things to come upon His people because they had 
been faithless to Him. These disasters are the results 
of sin. We can hardly imagine a more vivid picture 
of faithlessness to a great trust, of ingratitude, and of 
unresponsiveness to high privilege and an inspiring 
destiny than Ezekiel has given us in his famous six- 
teenth chapter. The delineation is overwhelming in its 
convincingness. Israel suffered because she had not 
been true to Jehovah, and all she suffered was de- 
served. 

But Ezekiel does not stop here. He is no forensic 
expounder of the ways of God with men. He does not 
belong to "the hard church." He adds to his general 
view of the national disaster two thoughts which were 
a real contribution to the ethical and religious outlook 
of the race. 

The first is that, though the sin of Israel has thwart- 
ed the divine purpose, it has not changed or defeated 
it. The nation has failed to realize Jehovah's ideal for 
it. He cannot do what He would have done. Still, 
through the overthrow, the disappointment and the 
suffering of Israel Jehovah would accomplish His pur- 
pose (Ezek. 20:42-44), and His worship would be 



Chapter 41. The Evolution of Good 155 

re-established in Jerusalem (Ezek. 16: 62). Amos and 
Isaiah had made a vast contribution to religious 
thought by their doctrine that Jehovah is Lord of the 
whole earth, and that all the forces which enter into 
human history are pliant to His will. Ezekiel advances 
beyond that. He is himself the greatest of the He- 
brew preachers of repentance, and he dares affirm that 
Jehovah will succeed in making Israel fulfil her glori- 
ous mission because of the strength of His moral ap- 
peal to men. Perhaps there is not in all literature a 
more impressive forecast of the triumph of moral 
forces than the closing verses of Ezekiel's sixteenth 
chapter. We shall see in our further study how, 
after the final destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel devel- 
oped this idea, throwing his whole soul into the effort 
to make it a reality to his countrymen. 

The prophet carefully guards this great doctrine 
from abuse by his second contribution to religious 
thought. He deepens, expands and unfolds Isaiah's 
conception of "the remnant" by his enforcement of the 
principle of individualism, of personal responsibility. 
He utterly repudiates the current proverb : "The fa- 
thers have eaten sour grapes ; and the children's teeth 
are set on edge." Against the perverted doctrine of 
"heredity and the solidarity of the family, race or na- 
tion, he utters his message of individualism : "The soul 
that sinneth, it shall die ; the son shall not bear the ini- 
quity of the father, neither shall the father bear the 
iniquity of the son" (Ezek. 18: 20). Does any one 
say that Jehovah's accomplishment of His purpose 
through Israel means that He will relax moral require- 
ments, and be careless of righteousness ? No, says Eze- 
kiel, it means that the relationship of the individual to 
Jehovah is the supreme thing, and that out of individ- 
uals who serve Jehovah He will reconstruct the spir- 
itual Israel which shall inherit the promises, and fulfil 
the divine mission. 

In the light of this doctrine the significance of the 
captivity began to appear. On the one hand it was the 



156 



Old Testament History 



penalty for the national apostacy; on the other hand, 
it was a part of the moral appeal and discipline which 
were to winnow and purify the spiritual Israel. 

Did Ezekiel's interpretation bring light and comfort 
to the exiled Hebrews ? We may be sure that it did so. 
We shall see how after Jerusalem had been destroyed, 
these truths became the solace and the confidence 
of the people. Indeed, it may be said that the message 
of Ezekiel provided the rational basis for the emer- 
gence of the Jewish church from the Jewish state, and 
prepared the way for what Erasmus called the dis- 
tinctively Christian conceptions of the inwardness of 
religion and of the worth of a human personality. 




The Prophet Ezekiel. 

From the Copley Print of Sargent's 
"Frieze of the Prophets," in the Boston 
Public Library. (Copyright, 1898, by 
Curtis and Carhfcxonj 



Chapter 42. The Transcendent Optimism 157 

CHAPTER XLIL 

THE TRANSCENDENT OPTIMISM. 

Ezek. chs. 33-37. 

We have seen that before the fall of Jerusalem 
Ezekiel had preached his two great doctrines that the 
relationship of the individual to Jehovah is the su- 
premely important thing, and that moral forces are 
destined to triumph. After the complete destruction 
of Jerusalem and the temple his message was put to 
the severest test. The burden of the prophecy of 
Isaiah had been the inviolability of Jerusalem. His 
confidence had been gloriously vindicated in his own 
day, but now it had been disproved. This total over- 
throw of Jewish expectations provoked among the 
exiles in Babylon two different moods. Some took the 
attitude of defiant skepticism. It seemed to them as 
if Jehovah had failed to keep His promises, and they 
inferred that either He w T as less powerful or less 
trustworthy than they had supposed. Others, without 
going into speculation, simply relapsed into perplexed 
and sullen submission to the inevitable. They did 
not know what to think, and so they stopped thinking, 
and were dumb before the stubborn and dreadful 
facts. These attitudes of the exiles, in the face of 
their overwhelming disappointment, are strikingly 
similar to those adopted by men everywhere when 
they are overtaken bv calamity. Christian pastors 
come to expect that they will find those who lack a vital 
faith in one of these moods, when misfortune or be- 
reavement enters their homes. 

But there is a third attitude toward calamity which 
was that of the prophet Ezekiel. Up to the fall of 
Jerusalem he had denounced the disloyalty to Jehovah, 
which was the real cause of the national overthrow, 
and had called the people to repentance. After that 
event, with remarkable insight into the workings of 



158 Old Testament History 

human nature, he radically changed the tone of his 
preaching. He saw that the event had enforced his 
previous message in a more poignant way than any 
possible words of his could do, and so he used the doc- 
trines which had been so effective for rebuke, as the 
basis for a sublime confidence in the victorious outcome 
of these fearful calamities for the spiritual Israel of 
the future. He did not hold that Jehovah would bring 
this about irrespective of the moral character of 
Israel. He did not fall into the habitual error of shal- 
low optimists that things would come out all right 
somehow, even to those who are disloyal to God. The 
ground of his confidence was a splendid faith in the 
responsiveness of the individual soul to a moral appeal, 
and his magnificent appreciation of the wealth of moral 
forces in the character of Jehovah to make His appeal 
effective. 

Ezekiel did not leave the people in doubt as to the 
moral forces upon which he relied. First of all he 
was confident that the very calamities from which they 
suffered would lead them to review the past dealings 
of Jehovah with them. Such a review would convince 
them that the real cause of every calamity that had 
come upon them was not the weakness, the indifference 
or vindictiveness of Jehovah but their own disloyalty 
to Him (Ezek. 36:16-19). It is true that He has not 
been willing to secure the material welfare of His 
people at every cost. He has not been willing to con- 
done unrighteousness. The supreme consideration 
with Him has not been their happiness but their holi- 
ness, and then the happiness which is the result and 
flower of righteousness. We can almost imagine 
Ezekiel as saying: What man of you would take sat- 
isfaction in learning that his child was happy in a life 
of shame? Deep down in your own heart is a recog- 
nition of the primacy of righteousness. The truth is 
that the attitude of Jehovah toward you has been ab- 
solutely controlled by love, and disloyalty to Him has 
assumed the peculiarly heinous form of ingratitude. 



Chapter 42. The Transcendent Optimism 159 

In the second place Ezekiel declares that henceforth 
Jehovah will assume a much more intimate relationship 
to loyal hearts than heretofore. Israel has suffered 
not a little from negligent and selfish shepherds 
(Ezek. 34:1-10). Henceforth Jehovah Himself will 
be the Shepherd of Israel : "I myself will be the shep- 
herd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, 
saith the Lord Jehovah. I will seek that which was 
lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, 
and will bind up that which was broken, and will 
strengthen that which was sick" (Ezek. 34:15, 16). 
This beautiful picture reminds us not only of the 
twenty-third Psalm, but of our Lord's representation 
of Himself as the Good Shepherd (Jo. 10 : 14). 

In the third place Ezekiel seems to contemplate a 
new spiritual energy going forth from Jehovah to 
break down the stubborn disloyalty of Israel and to 
bestow on them a new spirit causing them to keep His 
law in a truly filial spirit. "A new heart also will I 
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and 
I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and 
I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my 
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my stat- 
utes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them ,, 
(Ezek. 36 : 26, 2j; compare 6 -.9; 11 119; 16 :63; 
20 143; 37 : 14; 39 :28). May we not say that we 
have in these great passages a clear foreshadowing of 
Jesus' doctrine of the Holy Spirit? Ezekiel taught 
the irresistible grace of God, not irresistible as a phys- 
ical force, but as a moral appeal, addressed to human 
hearts fashioned by their original constitution to re- 
spond to such appeals. 

The prophet makes the triumph of Jehovah's appeal 
clearer by reference to two considerations. First, it 
is for His own sake, as well as for the sake of Israel 
that His people must be redeemed and made glorious 
in the earth. The complaint of Israel is well grounded 
that the disasters that had overtaken the nation had 
caused the name of Jehovah to be profaned in the 



i6o 



Old Testament History 



earth, as if He were not able to care for His own 
(Ezek. 36:20). The reconstituted Israel will be the 
glorious vindication of Jehovah. It will not simply 
manifest His power, but His righteousness, for it will 
show that the calamities of Israel were not due to the 
weakness of Jehovah, but to the primacy of holiness in 
His character (Ezek. 36 : 36 ; 37 : 28). 

Still further Ezekiel reminds the exiles that it is 
vain for man to put limits to the resources of Jeho- 
vah. The redemption and re-establishment of Israel 
may appear hopeless to the eye of human wisdom, but 
Jehovah can re-people with living men the valley of 
dry bones (Ezek. 37: 1-14). 

If the exiles in Babylon were to take any hopeful 
view of their future it must be on the basis of faith in 
Jehovah. Ezekiel pointed out the way to such confi- 
dence. And the magnificent Hebrew optimist based 
his hopes upon considerations that appeal to humanity 
to-day with all their original force. 



<j^0i<&- r &*4L 




Brick from Babylon, Stamped with 
Nebuchadnezzar's Name. 

Nebuchadnezzar was a great builder, 
and many bricks bearing his name are 
found among the ruins of Babylon. 



Chapter 43. The Blessing to Mankind 161 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE BLESSING TO MANKIND. 
Is. Chs. 40-55. 

The large majority of Biblical scholars attribute the 
part of the book of Isaiah which begins with the for- 
tieth chapter to a prophet who lived in Babylon near 
the close of the exile. A full century and a half sep- 
arates this writer from the statesman-prophet of the 
reign of Hezekiah. 

About thirty years after the fall of Jerusalem the 
hearts of the exiles in Babylon were stirred by the 
prophetic announcement, through the lips of Isaiah of 
Babylon, that the period of captivity was drawing to a 
close. We may imagine the consternation and the joy 
with which the exiles heard such words as these from 
an accredited prophet of Jehovah : "Comfort ye, com- 
fort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye com- 
fortably to Jerusalem ; and cry unto her, that her war- 
fare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that 
she hath received of Jehovah's hand double for all 
her sins" (Is. 40 : 1, 2). 

Isaiah did not seek to inspire this confidence as 
to the future of the exiles by the bare assertion of the 
fact. He supported his word by considerations of 
great weight. 

In the first place, he boldly advanced the doctrine 
that, in the mercy of Jehovah, there was a limit to the 
penalties of Israel's transgressions. Her period of 
trouble is ended. She has received of Jehovah's hand 
the full measure of punishment. Her suffering has 
tended to produce that penitent mind which makes it 
possible for Jehovah to pardon her iniquity. It was 
no new teaching that Jehovah pardons iniquity. Over 
against the sternest warnings of the prophets, and the 
direst predictions of calamities there was set the pros- 
pect of recovery and blessedness, when Israel turned 



162 Old Testament History 

back to God. This light rested even on the prophecy 
of Amos (9: 11-15). And those who were familiar 
with the Psalms could not fail to realize how intimately 
this truth was associated with the substance of the 
revelation of Jehovah. The hearts of the exiles must 
have leaped with joy when Isaiah told them that God 
had pardoned them. It would not have been possible 
for them to believe the rest of his message without 
that assurance, any more than it is possible for us 
to-day to believe that God has any good thing in store 
for us so long as we are conscious of being unrecon- 
ciled to Him, while the sense of fellowship with God 
carries with it the pledge of every blessing (Mt. 6 : 33 ; 
Rom. 8:32). 

In the second place, Isaiah supported his announce- 
ment by summoning them to reflect that the Lord of the 
whole earth, who has chosen Israel for His purposes, 
will bless the whole earth (mankind) throueh Israel. 
The conception that Jehovah is the Lord of the whole 
earth is the teaching of all the prophets from, the time 
of Amos. Isaiah of Jerusalem and Jeremiah had de- 
clared that every force that enters into the history of 
man is subject to the will of Jehovah. He can use 
the nations to protect or to chastise Israel, as He 
chooses. Ezekiel expanded the doctrine in teaching 
that Jehovah would succeed in His purpose with Is- 
rael because of the omnipotence of His moral appeal. 

Isaiah of Babylon advanced even beyond this. Noth- 
ing can excel the eloquence and power of his exposition 
of the doctrine of Amos and of Ezekiel (Is. 40: 12-31). 
But he drew from it the original and majestic inference 
that the Lord of the whole earth cares for all mankind, 
and since He has chosen Israel for the fulfilment of 
His purpose, it cannot be that He will leave Israel in 
disgrace and exile. All the ends of the earth are to be 
saved by Jehovah. Unto Him every knee shall bow 
in homage and every tongue shall swear allegiance. In 
the fulfilment of this vast purpose Israel is to have 
her place of glory (Is. 45:21-25). 



Chapter 43. The Blessing to Mankind 163 



Putting it in another way, the earlier prophets ap- 
plied their conception of the omnipotence of Jehovah 
almost wholly to the fortunes of Israel. Jehovah 
would protect or chastise Israel according to His 
righteous will. Isaiah of Babylon applied his concep- 
tion of the omnipotence of Jehovah to the whole world, 
to the fortunes of the race. He preached what Origen 
called "the Gospel of creation." He taught, to quote 
the noble sentence of Bishop Westcott, that "the crea- 
tion of the world is the pledge of the redemption of 
the world." Israel did not exist for herself alone, but 
for mankind, and hence Israel, as the Chosen People of 
Jehovah, is to have her glorious place in the work of 
blessing mankind. Now that she has been purged of 
her transgression, the time of her deliverance from 
Babylon must be near that she may fulfil her part in 
this too long delayed work. 

In the third place, Isaiah 
confirmed his message of com- 
fort by calling the attention of 
the exiles to the fact that there 
were indications in the actual 
historical situation that the end 
of the Babylonian dominion 
was approaching, and with it 
the time of their deliverance. 

Nebuchadnezzar had died in 
561 b. c. He left no worthy 
successor. A series of weak or 
infant kings removed by assas- 
sination had disorganized the 
realm. In the meantime an ob- 
scure Persian prince was rapid- 
ly achieving an international 
position of first-rate impor- 
tance. He had conquered As- 
tyages, king of Ecbatana 
and Croesus, the famous wealthy king of Lydia. Thus 
he had made himself master of Asia Minor, as well as 




Cyrus, King of Persia. 

From a bas-relief among- the 
ruins of ancient Pasargadas, Cy- 
ras' royal residence. The in- 
scription at the top, now broken 
off, read: "I am Cyrus, the 
King, theAchsemenian." 



164 



Old Testament History 



of the territory northeast of Babylonia. Isaiah had 
only to connect the appearance of this world-conqueror 
with his teachings as to the character and power of 
Jehovah to find in the historic movement of his own 
day ample room for believing that the Babylonian op- 
pression was doomed. Cyrus is a minister of God to 
fulfil His purpose. And yet we are to remember that 
while Cyrus in an inscription speaks of himself as 
"beloved of Bel and Nebo," Isaiah refers to these very 
gods in utmost scorn as so much dead weight, baggage 
for the backs of beasts (Is. 46: 1-10 ; comp. 44: 12-17). 
It was not because Cyrus loved Jehovah or was con- 
sciously serving Him that he was to perform his great 
work, but simply because Jehovah was God of the 
whole earth and chose to use this tool. The very 
fact that Cyrus was such a tool, taken in connection 
with Israel's pardon, and Jehovah's purpose to bless 
mankind through Israel, strengthened confidence in 
Isaiah's great message of comfort. 




Tomb of Cyrus, near Pasargadae, Persia. 



Chapter 44. The Ideal of Service 165 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

THE IDEAL OF SERVICE. 

The 'Servant" passages in Isaiah, chs. 40-55. 

We have seen that Isaiah of Babylon, drew an orig- 
inal and majestic inference from the omnipotence of 
Jehovah. He saw that the Lord of the whole earth 
cared for all mankind, and had a high and large pur- 
pose for the race. Therefore, the special revelation and 
guidance and protection He had given to Israel were 
not for the sake of Israel only, they were to be con- 
nected with His purpose for mankind. Hence, the He- 
brew nation would not fulfil its mission by simply be- 
coming prosperous, united and devoted to the ser- 
vice of Jehovah. It could only realize its true des- 
tiny in becoming the means and the channel of spirit- 
ual blessing to the whole world. Israel is to be a 
light to the Gentiles, that she may be the salvation of 
Jehovah to the ends of the earth (Is. 49:6). But 
this great doctrine of Isaiah is after all involved in the 
original call of Abraham, when he was told that Je- 
hovah's purpose was not simply to make of him a great 
nation, but in him to bless all the families of the earth 
(Gen. 12:2, 3). The chord that sounds so clearly in 
Isaiah was struck at the very beginning of the sym- 
phony. 

From this point of view nothing could be more nat- 
ural than that Isaiah should draw a picture of the kind 
of nation Israel must be, and the kind of service che 
must render in order to accomplish this high mission 
to mankind. These descriptions constitute the fa- 
mous "Servant" passages of Isaiah. They are inserted 
like a vignette in the text of a printed page, or, to 
change the figure, when we hold up the page to the 
light we see beneath the text the water line of a human 
face. It is the face of the ideal Servant of Jehovah. 
We may call it a personification of Israel when she is 



1 66 Old Testament History 

absolutely loyal to her high vocation, but the face 
that gleams from the page is something more than 
that. It is the face of one who renders the highest 
conceivable service to mankind in the noblest ways. 

What would such a person be in character, in 
method, and in purpose ? Did ever a thinker confront 
a more difficult question? The temptation to answer 
it in the terms of some beneficent world conqueror 
like Cyrus, who was just then looming so large on 
the horizon of world politics, must have been almost 
irresistible. Isaiah vindicates his superb prophetic 
insight, by turning away from every ideal of human 
beneficence that had occurred to men, and drawing, 
with absolute sureness of touch, the strong, sym- 
pathetic face, unattractive to any eye without spirit- 
ual insight, of one who so absolutely identifies him- 
self with the lot of those whom he would bless that 
he suffers even to death on their behalf, and this while 
he is misunderstood, unappreciated and cruelly perse- 
cuted by the very persons whom he is seeking to 
bless. This, said Isaiah, is the face of one who will 
render mankind the highest service in the noblest ways. 
This is the ideal "Servant of Jehovah." 

Now it is not strange that there should have been 
many partial correspondences with this description. 
Isaiah had such a clear insight into the nature of moral 
service to mankind, and into the conditions under 
which it could be rendered that every man who has 
actually given spiritual help to others has in some small 
way fulfilled the prophecy. But we have only to turn 
to the New Testament to see its complete and glorious 
realization in the person and work of Jesus Christ. 
Leaving out of account the correspondences in details 
between the description of the Servant and Jesus 
Christ, which are very wonderful, the character, the at- 
titude, the method, and the purpose of Jesus match the 
portrait drawn by Isaiah as the planet Neptune matched 
the prophecies of Le Verrier and Adams. 

Did Isaiah across the vast gulf of five centuries and 



Chapter 44. The Ideal of Service 167 

a half see God's revelation of Himself to man in the 
person of His Son? At least this much is certain: 
Isaiah so clearly discerned the conditions of true 
spiritual service that when Jesus came He naturally and 
inevitably conformed to them, and so corresponded to 
the description Isaiah had given. 

"In His harmonious fulness wrought 
Who gathers in one sheaf complete 
The scattered blades of God's sown wheat." 
— Whittier: Miriam. 

The question then comes, did Isaiah believe that 
this ideal Servant of Jehovah would actually appear? 
Taking his prophecies in their whole sweep and com- 
pass it seems to be clear that it was this precise con- 
fidence which was the ground of all his bright ex- 
pectations for Israel and for the human race. 

The more we meditate upon this the more wonderful 
it will appear that more than five centuries before our 
era Isaiah should have drawn a recognizable por- 
trait of Jesus Christ. The word "recognizable" is not 
strong enough, for to-day when on Good Friday we 
seek to put before our minds a clear and moving 
representation of the crowning work of the Redeemer, 
we read the fifty-third chapter of the prophecy of 
Isaiah. 



l68 Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XLV. 

god's temporal providence. 
Ezra chs. 1-3. 

The conquest of Babylon by Cyrus naturally made 
some change in the attitude of Chaldea towards its 
tributary provinces. Still we should hardly have sup- 
posed that Cyrus would completely reverse the policy 
of the great over-lord of Western Asia. Yet that is 
precisely what he did. The Babylonian kings sought 
to crush conquered states into submission so that 
every opportunity and power for insurrection might 
be taken away. Cyrus, on the other hand, believed that 
the true way to deal with subject peoples was to give 
them all the liberty they could possibly use. He en- 
couraged them to revive their national institutions and 
forms of worship, and made rather extensive provi- 
sions for the migration of those who wished to return 
to their ancestral homes. Undoubtedly there were 
specific as well as general considerations behind this 
policy. He himself had conquered Babylon largely 
through the aid of the disaffected peoples who had 
been brought into the home king-dom. He saw the wis- 
dom of pacifying Babylonia, if his rule was to have 
any stable basis. 

In pursuance of this policy, in the first year of his 
reign, Cyrus issued his famous edict (Ezra 1:2-4). 
The language seems at first to indicate that Cyrus had 
become a monotheist, worshiping Jehovah alone: "All 
the kingdoms of the earth hath Jehovah, the 'God of 
heaven, given me; and he hath charged me to build 
him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah." The 
testimony of the monuments is to the effect that Cyrus 
was what Max Muller called a "Henotheist," that is 
to say, he admitted the existence of many gods, while 
at the same time, for political or geographical reasons, 
he worshiped the god which seemed best on that oc- 



Chapter 45. God's Temporal Providence 169 

casion. In Jerusalem he would worship Jehovah. On 
one of his cylinders Cyrus explicitly states that he 
and his son Camibyses are worshipers of Marduk, 
Bel and Nebo, the gods of Babylon. There is no nec- 
essary inconsistency between this statement and the 
language of the edict, which naturally is couched in 
a form to identify him as closely as possible with his 
Jewish subjects. 

It was because of this permission and encourage- 
ment on the part of the king that we find in these 
opening chapters of the book of Ezra a record of the 
beginning of the exodus from Babylonia, and the re- 
establishment of Jerusalem as the Hebrew capital. 
We must not imagine that the whole race emigrated 
to Jerusalem. On the contrary, many of the Jews 
who had escaped to Egypt, after the murder of Geda- 
liah, appear to have remained there. And we know 
that a strong contingent of the Hebrews, who had at- 
tained wealth and position in Babylon, never returned, 
though many of them were in hearty sympathy with 
the enterprise of rebuilding Jerusalem, and contributed 
to it. 

The outstanding fact that impresses the modern 
reader of this narrative, to whom many of the details 
are necessarily obscure, is that God by His providence 
was fulfilling the word of the prophets that the fall 
of Jerusalem was not the end of the Hebrew people 
in Palestine, that Jerusalem and the temple should rise 
again, and Jehovah be worshiped on the site of the old 
shrine. The historian goes so far as to say that Cyrus 
made this proclamation "that the word of Jehovah 
by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished" 
(Ezra 1:1). Not that Cyrus knew of this prophecy 
and was consciously fulfilling it, but that the provi- 
dence of God controlled events so that it should be 
certainly fulfilled. 

We are continually forecasting the future on the 
basis of our shrewd estimate of probabilities, in which 
we give a higher regard to physical than to moral 



170 Old Testament History 

law. We do not see how a certain end can be accom- 
plished, though the failure to attain it would violate 
a great moral principle, rewarding iniquity, and setting 
the most depraved in the highest places. We are often 
tempted to say: "What doth God know? Can he 
judge through the thick darkness?" (Job 22:13.) It 
was the problem that confounded the author of the 
seventy-third psalm, and he was led back to faith, 
when, in the sanctuary, the truth of God's providence 
found a response in his heart. We do not have such 
forecasts of the future as Israel had, but the way those 
anticipations were fulfilled indicates the ultimate tri- 
umph of the great moral truths of revelation. 

Still further, these accomplishments were for the 
most part wrought by the simple providence of God, 
into which the miraculous did not enter. If we ex- 
cept the possible divine suggestion to Cyrus that he 
should issue his edict about the Jews — which is not in 
the least necessary, indeed is hardly reconcilable with 
the general tenor of the narrative — there is not a hint 
of the miraculous. The end was wrought out through 
what Canon Mozley calls "God's temporal providence." 
There is a place for miracles in the Christian revela- 
tion, but we must not overlook the great truth that 
the laws of nature and the forces that enter into hu- 
man history are under God's control. The stormy 
winds and Cyrus, the world-conqueror, fulfil His 
word. 

When Luther was at Coburg, waiting impatiently 
the outcome of the Diet of Augsburg, he wrote to his 
friend the Electoral Chancellor Bruck : "I have lately 
witnessed two miracles, as I was looking out of the 
window: the first was the beautiful vault of heaven 
with the stars supported by no pillars, and yet stand- 
ing; the other was thick, dark clouds floating along 
without basis to rest upon, or any vessel in which they 
were contained; and then after, with solemn visage, 
they had saluted the heavens and fled away, burst out 
the brilliant rainbow, which sustained the heavy mass 



Chapter 45. God's Temporal Providence 171 

of water upon its weak, transparent roof." Luther, 
like all who have caught the significance of the He- 
brew and Christian revelations, saw the divine in the 
workings of all law, in the orderly and familiar as 
truly as in the unusual and the startling. 



172 



Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XL VI. 



CONSCIENTIOUS DEVOTION REWARDED 

Ezra chs. 4-6 ; Haggai. 

The importance of the temple to the life of Israel 
can hardly be overestimated. When the temple was 
destroyed it seemed as if the inner principle of coher- 
ence in the political, social and religious institutions 
of the nation had been annihilated. Hence the first 
step toward the actual re-establishment of the national 
existence in its ancient seat was the rebuilding of the 
temple. 

Scholars differ as to whether the initiation of this 
enterprise was due to a revival of religious interest 
and of national feeling among the descendants of the 

people who had been 
left in the land at the 
time of the Babylonian 
captivity, or to the zeal 
of the contingent of 
Babylonian Hebrews 
who had returned to 
Jerusalem under the 
authorization of the 
edict of Cyrus. Pre- 
sumably there is truth 
in both representa- 
tions. Haggai prob- 
Head of Haggai. ably was a native of 

From the Copley Print of Sargent's" Frieze Jerusalem, who had 
of the Prophet's," in. the Boston Public Li- A^pJ + -u„ ■fV.-H-i-mAC 
brary. (Copyright, 1898, by Curtis and Cam- SnareO tne lOlTUneS 

eron -) of the people that had 

remained in Judah; while Zechariah was a native of 
Babylon, whose prophecies link on to those of Hag- 
gai, and supplement them. The revival among the 
Palestinian Hebrews, and the zeal of their Babylonian 
brethren co-operated to initiate this national work. 




Chapter 46. Conscientious Devotion Rewarded 173 

There are three phases of the progress of this en- 
terprise which deserve special consideration. One 
was the refusal on the part of the Jews at Jerusalem 
of the offer of Samaritan help (Ezra 4:1-3). This may 
easily be represented as churlish bigotry on the part 
of the Hebrews. In modern phrase it might be said 
that Samaritan resources, even if " tainted," in the 
opinion of pious Hebrews, would go just as far as 
similar resources coming from Palestinian or Baby- 
lonian Jews in quarrying stones or in felling lumber 
for the temple. If the Hebrews were so zealous about 
the good work of building the house of Jehovah, was 
it not the dictate of simple common-sense to accept 
aid from any source, and not to be over-zealous in 
scrutinizing the character of the givers? The princi- 
ple upon which the builders of the temple acted, how- 
ever, is sufficiently clear. They saw that the accept- 
ance of this aid meant the admission of the half 
pagan Samaritans to some influence in the worship of 
Jehovah. 

And the bitter experience of the captivity taught 
those who remained in Judah and those who were de- 
ported to Chaldea that the worship of Jehovah could 
not be combined with that of pagan deities. That 
experiment had been tried over and over again. The 
remnant of Judah was now thoroughly monotheistic, 
and it had no heart for traveling again the weary road 
of the old experiment. Better by far that the temple 
should be built by its own resources, even at the cost 
of exhausting sacrifice; better even that the temple 
should remain unbuilt, than that the taint of the old 
polytheism should be introduced into the worship of Je- 
hovah through the influence the Samaritans might 
claim on the strength of their contributions. 

A second important feature of the situation was that 
after the Jews had assumed this attitude toward the 
Samaritans they had to take the consequences of it. 
They had turned would-be friends into implacable ene- 
mies, whose plots with the central government brought 



174 Old Testament History 

the whole work to a standstill (Ezra ch. 5). Further- 
more, it seemed as if everything went wrong with 
them. There was a succession of poor harvests ac- 
companied by mildew and hail (Hag. 1:11; 2:17). 
This closely parallels common human experience. Men 
frequently have to pay the full cost of pursuing a 
course dictated by conscientious motives, and it often 
seems as if a combination of events made the way of 
righteousness as difficult as possible. Still we must re- 
member that if the rewards of well-doing were in- 
variable and immediate, the heroic quality in a high 
moral decision would be eliminated. Heroism is im- 
possible without taking serious risks. 

But the chapter of accidents is not continuously 
against those who follow the dictates of a high moral 
sense. It was not in this case. The patience of the 
temple builders was tried, and for a time they had to 
desist from their work, but a series of events wholly 
unforeseen gave them a rare opportunity. The unset- 
tled condition of the Persian empire in the interval 
between the death of Cyrus (530 b. c.) and the re- 
organization of the realm under Darius (521 B.C.) 
diverted the attention of the central government from 
what was going on in Palestine. This was the oppor- 
tunity which Haggai and Zechariah seized to inspire 
the Hebrews of Jerusalem to resume the work and 
push' it on with vigor, and the protest of the Samari- 
tans resulted in the discovery of the old edict of Cyrus, 
which convinced Darius that it was good policv to per- 
mit the Jews to build their temple, and to assist them 
substantial^ in their undertaking. 

Thus it came about that, by reason of the noble 
resolution of the Hebrews, matched and assisted by 2. 
series of events in which the providence of God is 
clearly seen, the temple was completed (516 B.C.), 
without Samaritan help, and in spite of Samaritan hos- 
tility, and unencumbered with any explicit or ini P«cit 
recognition of any worship but tn'at of Jehovah, God 
of Israel. The experience of the Hebrews in building 



Chapter 46. Conscientious Dez/otion Rewarded 175 

this temple is a striking illustration of the fact that 
God honors the efforts of those who honor Him. The 
author of the sixteenth psalm gave this truth sublime 
spiritual expression: 

"I have set Jehovah always before me: 
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." 




Impression of a Seal of Darius. 

. The trilingual inscription reads, "I am Da 
nus, the great king." 



176 Old Testament History 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

HUMAN ABILITY CONSECRATED TO GOD. 

Neh. chs. 1-6; 12 : 31-43. 

It is a unique feature of the ancient Hebrew records 
that they represent the nation as being delivered in 
the crises of its history through the agency of some 
strong personality, whose work and influence were de- 
cisive. Can any other people furnish such a portrait 
gallery of able, masterful men as the countenances that 
look out upon us from the pages of the Old Testament ? 
Sargent's representation of the prophets only utilizes a 
part of the suggestions of Hebrew history. 

Among these men of force and character Nehemiah 
holds an honorable place. Several features of his ca- 
reer are outstanding. 

One is that he represents that considerable group of 
Hebrews scattered throughout Western Asia, who 
though they rose to high place in the Babylonian and 
Persian empires, never lost sight of the welfare of the 
home of their race, and of the city of the Holy One of 
Israel. These men were ready to subordinate their pri- 
vate interests to the dictates of an enlightened patriot- 
ism. To such a man as Nehemiah his position at court 
must have made his life extremely comfortable. He 
had risen about as high in the political world as was 
possible for a subject. He enjoyed frequent opportuni- 
ties for private access to the sovereign with all that 
that implies. His whole life was cast in those condi- 
tions which carry with them luxury, consideration and 
influence. And yet Nehemiah was so profoundly 
affected by the news of the condition of his brethren 
in Jerusalem that he forgot his own concerns. A heavy 
burden lay upon his heart. He besought Jehovah in a 
fervent prayer (Neh. 1:4-11), and for many weary 
weeks watched for a favorable opportunity to approach 
the king. And when the opportunity came and his re- 



Chapter 47. Human Ability Consecrated to God 177 

quest was heeded, he was glad to leave the happy con- 
ditions of life at court, and lead an expedition that in- 
volved much hardship and many trying experiences to 
promote the welfare of the Hebrews at Jerusalem. 

Sometimes even good men are tempted to judge 
their fellows by class labels, and to assume that because 
many of the rich and highly placed are selfish, arrogant 
and unsympathetic, these are the characteristics of them 
all. Whereas, the fact is, that a poor man in a mean 
place may have these very qualities intensely developed, 
and a man of great resources in an exalted place may 
be generous, humble, and full of fellow feeling. We 
must not attribute the characteristic vices of the great 
or of the lowly to every member of their respective 
classes. Much of the bitterness, rancor, and hatred 
between classes would vanish if men generally would 
admit and act upon such a thoroughly substantiated 
truth. George Washington was the richest man of his 
time in the American colonies, Coligni stood upon the 
steps of the throne, Sir Harry Vane found any political 
career open to him, Nehemiah was one of the most 
exalted men of his age. And yet these typical, repre- 
sentative men did not hesitate in the least to subordinate 
every personal consideration to a true patriotism. The 
hope of a true Christian civilization is that this spirit 
of devotion to the general welfare may prevail among 
rich and poor, exalted and lowly alike. 

The career of Nehemiah also illustrates how human 
abilities of the first order may promote the purposes of 
God. No one can read these chapters understanding^ 
without being impressed with the fact that Nehemiah 
belonged to the small class of men who rise to the top 
anywhere. There is a good deal of egotism about 
him. He uses the first personal pronoun with striking 
frequency, but, after making every allowance for this, 
he is emphatically a man who is master of the situation. 
He knows how to deal with the king, and he knows how 
to deal with a disorganized, suspicious populace torn 
by class hatreds. He can fan enthusiasm by a sound 



178 Old Testament History 

appeal to true patriotic sentiments (Neh. 2 117,18). He 
can organize a difficult engineering task with the ut- 
most efficiency (Neh. ch. 3), and when occasion re- 
quires he can display the qualities of a first-class gen- 
eral (Neh. 4:13-23). He can be trustful where confi- 
dence is deserved (Neh. 2:12), and exceedingly wary 
where his knowledge of human nature makes him sus- 
picious (Neh. 6:3-14). Altogether Nehemiah is the 
sort of man for whom the world is always looking — 
sagacious, masterful, enterprising, courageous. If 
Nehemiah were living to-day, no matter where, in Ger- 
many, England, India or America, the world would 
hear of him, and acknowledge his capacity. In Egypt 
he would do with equal success the work of Lord 
Cromer; in Sarawak the work of Rajah Brooke; in 
China the work of Sir Robert Hart. 

It is easy to misinterpret Paul's declaration that not 
many wise and not many mighty are called. It is true 
that God is not dependent upon the wisdom or re- 
sources of men, but it is also true that God does His 
mightiest work through human capacity sanctified and 
consecrated to His use. One of the first duties of a 
Christian man is to make the most of himself — if he is 
a business man, to make all the money he can honor- 
ably ; if he is a professional man, to attain the utmost 
eminence in his calling ; to be a man among men, and 
then to take all that he has won of fame, or position, 
or influence or wealth and devote it to promoting the 
interests of the kingdom' of God. That is exactly what 
Nehemiah did. 



Chapter 48. The Law of the Lord 179 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE LAW OF THE LORD. 

Ezra chs. 9, 10; Neh. chs. 8, 9, 13. 

The captivity proved to be the discipline that fitted 
Israel to render the largest spiritual service to the 
world. The exiles in Babylonia attained a purity and 
intensity of religious life which they had never gained 
in Palestine. In the midst of a powerful and highly 
developed civilization they came to new appreciation 
of the significance of their own history. Their nation- 
al traditions became unspeakably precious to them, 
and they took great pains to preserve the purity of their 
race, and to live more strictly than they had ever done 
in Palestine according to the requirements of their 
law. Of course it cannot be maintained that these 
were the characteristics of the whole body of the ex- 
iles. Many of them probably were weaned from their 
home city and lost the racial spirit, but the virile, dom- 
inant elements in the Hebrew contingent in Babylonia 
loved Jerusalem passionately, and came to a deeper ap- 
preciation of the revelation of Jehovah. 'Even those 
who for one reason or another did not join in any of 
the expeditions back to Jerusalem made large money 
contributions toward the upbuilding of the temple and 
the city, and followed the fortunes of these enter- 
prises with the liveliest interest. 

We may safely leave at one side the curious and per- 
plexing tangle of the Nehemiah-Ezra chronology, and 
fasten our attention upon the well-ascertained features 
of the whole situation. 

Whatever our theory as to the law Ezra brought to 
Jerusalem from Babylonia — whether, according to old- 
er scholars and the general tradition, it was the Pen- 
tateuch, as we now have it, or, according to many mod- 
ern scholars, it was the so-called Priestly Code (Ex. 
chs. 25-31 ; 34: 29-40; ch. 38, and the books of Leviti- 



180 Old Testament History 

cus and Numbers), the facts remain that mmch that 
Ezra taught was as old as the entrance of the Israelites 
into Canaan, and much was new. For example, the 
influence of Ezekiel, a recent prophet, is very marked 
in the attitude and requirements of Ezra. According 
to any possible view, therefore, the law of Ezra was 
the law of Moses, expanded, developed and inter- 
preted, especially on the side of ritual, by Ezekiel. The 
law of Ezra also had its firm roots in the past, and 
it commended itself to the Palestinian Jews, who had 
been cut off largely from the Babylonian develop- 
ment, as the expression of the authoritative will of 
Jehovah. They would not have yielded to it if it had 
been, to any considerable extent, unfamiliar. 

One of the best things in the life and character of 
the Hebrews was their readiness to respond to the 
law when it was fairly and impressively brought be- 
fore them. They could easily enough forget it or dis- 
obey it, but when they were confronted with it they 
acknowledged its authority and repented. The great 
reforms under Samuel and Josiah were in response to 
expositions of the law. The course of Israel resembles 
the way of a child who is often thoughtless and dis- 
obedient, but easily becomes penitent when its better 
nature is touched. The response of the great assembly 
to Ezra's promulgation of the law indicates that in spite 
of the gross infidelities of Israel to Jehovah, there was 
something radically sound and wholesome in the old 
stock. When we are inclined to pass sweeping judg- 
ments upon the transgressions of Israel we do well 
to remember that there was always something worthy 
in this people, and that this something was the very 
best of its kind in the world. 

The narrative also suggests the vast cost of some 
reforms. Ezra and Nehemiah both saw that only the 
most thorough isolation would prevent Israel from be- 
ing lost in the surrounding nations. Hence alien mar- 
riages must be forbidden; the institution of the Sab- 
bath must be honored and everything that marked 



Chapter 48. The Law of the Lord 181 

the distinction of the Jews from other peoples must 
be emphasized. The peril of mixed marriages ap- 
pealed with great force to both reformers. Many of 
the Palestinian Jews had married Moabite or Ammon- 
ite women. The children were speaking a corrupt 
patois. It was evident that the purity of race and re- 
ligion was most seriously threatened. It was a drastic, 
cruel thing to demand that these Hebrews should put 
away beloved wives and separate themselves from dear 
children in the interest of the future of the whole peo- 
ple, or else forfeit their share in the life of Israel. And 
yet, impartially surveying the whole situation, can we 
suggest any other course that would serve the end 
in view? The ideal treatment of the situation pre- 
sents a vexatious problem to the most skilful casuist. 
This sacrifice was one of those enormous costs that 
are often involved in any advance in civilization and 
religion. It is not a pleasant thing to think of, and 
the distressing feature of the situation is that a large 
share of the burden and suffering must have fallen on 
wives as loyal as Ruth the Moabitess, and upon in- 
nocent children. 

Still further, the narrative indicates the importance 
of the ritual side of religion. Whatever our view as 
to the sources of the law Ezra promulgated, no his- 
torian can doubt that the result of his work was to 
give a powerful impulse to the development of the 
ritual, formal aspect of religion. Indeed, the Phari- 
sees represented the extreme results of the impulse that 
came from Ezra. The message of the great prophets 
that Jehovah requires obedience and not sacrifice, was 
not lost, but it was obscured. Still, though the fine 
balance that Jesus inculcated was disturbed (Mt. 23: 
23), let us not assume too rashly that the whole move- 
ment was a mistake. For is it not just this institu- 
tional, ritual phase of religion which conserves, im- 
presses, and transmits spiritual truth? A prophet is 
better than an institution, but the race of prophets^ is 
not continuous, and the prophet may put his spirit in- 



182 



Old Testament History 



to an institution and thus perpetuate his life. There 
were few Ezras or Nehemiahs in the subsequent life 
of Israel, and no Isaiahs, Ezekiels or Jeremiahs. Of 
course the scroll of the law preserved their messages, 
but it is very easy, even in these days of the printing- 
press, to overestimate the influence of books upon the 
masses of men. A ritual, an institution that symbolizes 
great truths, and creates an atmosphere congenial to 
them, is, next to the heart and voice of the prophet, 
the great instrumentality for impressing those truths. 
The coherence and vitality of Israel's later witness to 
the one God, whose character was holiness, largely 
grew out of the institutional work of Ezra. We do 
well not to think lightly of the formal, ritual side of 
religion, of church-going, of public worship, of the 
whole institutional life in which religion finds ex- 
pression. 





jfe§§pggj8k -»*&<•» 






^^^g? ggl^ 


$ 


r" * 


! ^^^fe^^^^-"^ 



The Beputed Tomb of Ezra in Persia. 



Chapter 49. The Insoluble Problem 183 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE INSOLUBLE PROBLEM. 
Pss. 74, 79, 126; Is. 63:7—64:12; 66:8. 

The problem that confronted the Jews during the 
last part of the Persian dominion was the problem of 
the book of Job. 

The exiles who had returned from Babylonia to 
Jerusalem, under Ezra and Nehemiah, were simply 
the advance guard of many such companies that 
nocked not only from Babylonia but from all the 
countries into which the Jews had been scattered af- 
ter the fall of Jerusalem. The attraction was the 
stable and happy state which had been built up by 
the two great reformers under the mild overlordship 
of Persia. The favorable international conditions, 
and the determination of the leaders to admit no one 
into the body politic who did not conform to the 
strict ceremonial requirements of the Ezra-Nehemiah 
law, created a homogeneous community, actuated by 
a singular unity of purpose. If one were to select 
the single period in the whole history of the Hebrews 
in which human life was happiest, and in which the 
chosen people approached most nearly to their re- 
ligious ideal, he would be apt to mention the first half 
of the fourth century before Christ, or, to be exact, 
the reign of Artaxerxes II (405-358 b. c). A some- 
what later poet, recalling this happy era, sang: 

"When Jehovah brought back those that returned to Zlon, 
We were like unto them that dream. 
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, 
And our tongue with singing: 
Then said they among the nations, 
Jehovah hath done great things for them. 
Jehovah hath done great things for us, 
Whereof we are glad." 

Ps. 126 : 1-3. 

The successor of Artaxerxes II, his younger son 



184 Old Testament History 

Ochus, proved to be almost as able and energetic as 
Darius I, and by far the most cruel sovereign of the 
Persian line. The defeat of Ochus by the king of 
Egypt, Nectanebus, led to an extensive revolt against 
the suzerainty of Persia throughout the whole of 
Syria; in which, from scattered notices in Josephus, 
we are led to infer that the Hebrew state, that had 
come to extend from a point near Hebron on the 
south to the neighborhood of Joppa on the north- 
west, was led to join. Probably the Syrian coalition 
was too strong for Jerusalem to resist. It was com- 
pelled to unite with it, or be crushed by it. 

The other possible version of the history is that 
the prosperity of Jerusalem aroused in the hearts of 
the Hebrews their old ambition for extended con- 
quest. But whatever the precise reason that led 
Jerusalem to array itself against Persia, it shared in 
the vengeance that Ochus visited upon all Syria, The 
passage Is. 63 7 — 64:12 apparently refers to this 
epoch, while the seventy-fourth and seventy-ninth 
psalms bring the incidents of the capture of Jerusalem 
and the feelings of the people before us with almost 
photographic fidelity. 

"O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? 
Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?" 

Ps. 74 : 1, 2. 

The psalmist sees the ruthless Persian soldiery pen- 
etrating into the holy places, profaning the sanctuary 
by their presence and their banners. He sees them 
lifting up their axes upon the beautiful and delicate 
carved work of the pillars, setting the temple on fire, 
and in all the land there is the smoke of the burning 
synagogues of Jehovah. 

"Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly; 
They have set up their ensigns for signs. 
They seemed as men that lifted up 
Axes upon a thicket of trees. 
And now all the carved work thereof 



Chapter 49. The Insoluble Problem 185 

They break down with hatchet emd hammers. 
They have set thy sanctuary on tire; 

********* 

They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land." 

Ps. 74 : 4-8. 

The previous disasters to Jerusalem could be ac- 
counted for by the idolatry and disobedience of the 
people. This disaster could not be accounted for in 
that way. There was no idolatry whatever in Jerus- 
alem. The race had been thoroughly purged of that. 
Never in the entire history of the Hebrews had Jeho- 
vah been worshiped with such purity. The ceremo- 
nial law had been observed with almost painful exact- 
ness, and there is no evidence that at this time purity 
of morals had been disregarded. The cry that arose 
from the heart of Israel — "O God, why hast thou 
cast us off for ever?" — was wrung from the experi- 
ence of the most inexplicable of calamities. To hu- 
man eyes there was no reason why Israel should be 
so afflicted. The problem was the eternal problem 
of the book of Job — how to explain the sufferings of 
those who with all their hearts are seeking to serve 
God. 

The mystery of this problem has not been cleared 
up by the advance of the years. Every one of us is 
confronted with it. The doctrine that regarded mis- 
fortune only as the result of sin has absolutely bro- 
ken down (John 9:1-3), and in place of that easy 
and superficial explanation men to-day are left, like 
the Hebrews of old, crying: "O God, why hast thou 
cast us off?" 

Let us frankly admit it ; there is no answer that is 
even measurablv satisfactory. The book of Job does 
not give it. The answer of the book of Job is prob- 
ably the best answer that can be made. In a word it 
is that man's outlook upon the universe is limited, 
and there are enough reasons for trusting God to be- 
lieve that the Judge of all the earth will do right. 
That was the solution that the author of the psalm 
from which we have just quoted reached — 



186 Old Testament History 



"Yet God is my King of old, 
Working salvation in the midst of the earth. 
******* 

The day is thine, the night also is thine: 
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. 
Thou has set all the borders of the earth: 
Thou hast made summer and winter." 

Ps. 74 : 12, 16, 17. 

That is the only solution of the problem that the 
thoughts of men for thousands of years have been 
able to reach. God who has made day and night, 
summer and winter, who has prepared the light and 
set the boundaries of the earth, and in so many ways 
has vindicated our confidence, is worthy of our trust 
even when we cannot understand His ways. 

"If e'er when faith had fallen asleep, 
I heard a voice, 'Believe no more,' 
And heard an ever- breaking shore 
That tumbled in the Godless deep; 

"A warmth within the breast would melt 
The freezing reason's colder part, 
And like a man in wrath tne heart 
Stood up and answered, '1 have felt.' 

"No, like a child in doubt and fear: 

But that blind clamor made me wise; 
Then was 1 as a child that cries, 
But, crying, knows his father near." 

— Tennyson: In Memorlam. 



Chapter 50. Judah's Loyalty to Jehovah 187 



CHAPTER L. 

JUDAH'S LOYALTY TO JEHOVAH. 

Dan. chs. 8, 11, and External History. 

As we have followed the course of Hebrew history 
we have frequently seen that events threatened the 
annihilation not only of the Jewish state, but of the 
Jewish race. In 734 b. a, Judah lost her independ- 
ence, and never regained it, except during the eighty 
years running from the Maccabean triumph under Si- 
mon (143 b. c.) to the victory of Pompey over Jeru- 
salem (63 b. a). But the successive conquests of Je- 
rusalem, the vassalage of the Hebrew state, and the 
bitter experience of the Babylonian captivity had not 
destroyed the Jewish stock. The Jerusalem of the 
Persian overlordship was more, thoroughly Hebrew 
than it had ever been before. Hebrew traditions, wor- 
ship, ideals and civilization came to their full flower 
in the city that sprang up under the labors of Nehe- 
miah and Ezra. The conquests and captivities left some 
deplorable marks upon Judah, still, 
the net result of these experiences 
was to purify and solidify Judaism. 

But under the Greek domination, 
resulting from the amazing victo- 
ries of Alexander the Great, the fibre 
of tough Jewish stock was put to a 
severer test than it had sustained in 
the days of Nebuchadnezzar, for 
there was this important difference 
between the aims of Nebuchadnezzar 
and those of Alexander. The Baby- 
lonian was satisfied with asserting 
his suzerainty over conquered peo- Alexander the Great . 
pies, of which the annual tribute was 
the token. He was satisfied to leave local customs un- 
touched and to concede a very large measure of self- 




i88 



Old Testament History 



rule, if insurrections did not occur. The Greek, on the 
other hand, was not only a conqueror but a mission- 
ary. He was not content to leave customs or even lan- 
guages as he found them. He had an ardent desire 
not only to conquer the world, but to Hellenize the 
world, and to make the civilization of the most distant 
provinces a reflection of the civilization of Macedonia. 
The Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which 
we know as the Septuagint, was made in accordance 
with this policy. The purpose of Alexander the Great 
affords a clearer analogy to the missionary purpose of 
the Christian church than the aim of any other world 
conqueror, with the possible exception of Napoleon I, 
who betrayed a somewhat similar ideal when he said, 
"I propose to make the Mediterranean a French lake." 
It is evident then, at a glance, that during the peri- 
od of the Greek domination the loyalty of the Hebrews 
to their traditions, their worship and their racial in- 
tegrity was tested in the severest fashion. 

The definite and sharp issue between fidelity to the 
law of Jehovah and acceptance of Greek morals and 
worship was presented to Jerusalem in the year 168 

b. c. Antiochus Epiph- 
anes, who had usurped 
the throne of Syria, 
found his plans against 
Egypt checked by the 
veto of Rome. As one 
in anger turns his wrr.th 
upon the first person 
at hand, Antiochus 
wreaked his rage 
against Rome on the 
Jews. He demanded the 
extinction of their re- 
ligion, the destruction 
of their sacred books 
and the substitution in the temple at Jerusalem of the 
worship of Zeus for the worship of Jehovah. 




Head of Antiochus Epiphanes. 



Chapter 50. Judatis Loyalty to Jehovah 189 

The very enormity of this demand aroused the heroic 
devotion of the Hebrews to their traditions and their 
worship. The dreadful test revealed the stubborn fi- 
delity of the Jews to their religion. When we recall 
how often in the past the nation had forsaken Jehovah, 
under the enticements of Canaanitish and Egyptian and 
Assyrian idolatry, we have in this sudden and tremen- 
dous outburst of passionate loyalty to Judaism an 
amazing revelation as to the real measure of the na- 
tion's response to the claims of Jehovah. The episode 
of the three Hebrews in Babylon who refused to wor- 
ship the image of Nebuchadnezzar, was repeated on a 
national scale when Jerusalem repudiated the gods of 
Greece. 

The career of the Maccabean princes — Mattathias 
and his sons, Judas, Jonathan and Simon — marks one 
of the most stirring and heroic epochs in Hebrew his- 
tory. Our fathers, who had the books of the Mac- 
cabees in their family Bibles, were doubtless much 
more familiar with this period than most Bible stu- 
dents of this generation. The first book of the Mac- 
cabees is a historical document of the very first rank, 
and it brings before us in a graphic and trustworthy 
form Jehovah's magnificent vindication — in the his- 
torical fact of Hebrew independence — of those who, 
against the most insidious and powerful temptations, 
refused to submit to the unholy demands of the Greek 
conqueror. 

As we read the story and ponder it, we cannot re- 
sist the reflection that Hebrew history would have 
had a very different development if the Jews had mani- 
fested a similar devotion to Jehovah at the earlier 
periods of their career. That undoubtedly is true, 
but we ought not to forget that, as a matter of fact, 
it was the experience of suffering which those infidel- 
ities involved which purified the spirit of the Hebrews 
so that they were loyal to Jehovah in that time of 
blood and fire. Mistakes, disloyalties, grievous trans- 
gressions, are not without a noble moral fruitage, if 



190 Old Testament History 

such experiences lead men to turn to God with a true 
repentance. The ultimate test of the quality of a hu- 
man soul is what it is, in view of its opportunity and 
endowment. The very acts that, taken by themselves, 
call for the sharpest condemnation may give birth to 
a repentance that equips the life against still stronger 
temptations. That was the spiritual experience of the 
Hebrew people. 



Chapter 51. Weakness and Strength of Judaism 191 



CHAPTER LI. 

WEAKNESS AND STRENGTH OF JUDAISM. 
External History. 

Without going into the details of the complicated 
but interesting series of events between the fall of the 
Maccabean kingdom and the birth of the Saviour we 
may examine the tendencies of the period as a whole 
with reference to the light it throws upon the peculiar 
strength and weakness of the Hebrew people. 

For one thing this period throws into high relief the 
incapacity of the Hebrews to manifest that civic spir- 
it which builds and preserves the state upon strong 
foundations. The independence which had been won 
by the Maccabean princes was soon lost. To be sure 
the kingdom could hardly avoid being drawn into the 
current of world-politics, but when the Roman power 
succeeded the Greek the situation was far simpler and 
less dangerous for Palestine than it had been for a 
thousand years, and, even if the Hebrews had not 
maintained an absolute independence of Rome, it was 
quite within their power to have held the position of 
favored allies. All these advantages were thrown 
away by the internal conflicts between different par- 
ties, which opened a path for the intrigues of an able, 
unscrupulous adventurer like Antipater, and for the 
intervention of Rome under the common pretext, 
namely, the necessity of establishing law and order. 
As one thinks of the unhappy fate of the Hebrew 
state he wishes that this people might have developed 
that civic sense which underlies the paragraphs on 
partisanship in Washington's Farewell Address. For 
lack of it they did not seize their opportunities. 
The story of Switzerland and of Holland shows what 
might have been done in Palestine, and the Jews had 
almost all the qualities which have saved the Swiss and 
the Dutch, except the power to discriminate between 



192 Old Testament History 

partisanship and patriotism. There are useful sug- 
gestions here for us in our own time and in our own 
land. 

Another characteristic of the Hebrews illustrated 
in this period is their singular lack of the sense of 
proportion. They seem to have had almost none of 
that appreciation of measure and balance which is so 
strong in the Greek mind. They suffered forces, ex- 
cellent in themselves, to proceed to extremes that were 
unreasonable and ruinous, Phariseeism was a legiti- 
mate development of one aspect of the revelation of 
Jehovah, but it was not a legitimate development of 
the whole disclosure of the truth given to Israel. There 
are many aspects of Sadduceeism — towards which 
Jesus was so tolerant — with which we cannot fail to 
sympathize, but Sadduceeism as a whole was not a 
normal outcome of Judaism. The Hebrews are not 
peculiar in their inability to see that extreme develop- 
ments of any single truth are likely to be untrue. The 
Romanists, the Puritans, and the modern agnostics, to 
cite widely separate classes, have fallen into the same 
error. There is much wisdom in the advice which Dr. 
Andrew D. White cites from that sensible old medi- 
aeval bishop, Ulrich of Augsburg. When sundry the- 
ologians were arguing various extreme logical conse- 
quences of supposed scriptural dogmas, he said : 
"Draw not upon the breasts of Holy Writ too hard, 
lest you obtain blood rather than milk." 

And yet, such are the contradictions of human na- 
ture, that this trait co-existed with a most capricious 
devotion to spiritual things. No race in the history 
of mankind has surpassed the Hebrews in their reck- 
less courage, in their tenacious heroism when their 
cause was absolutely hopeless. The defense of the 
fortress of Jerusalem by Aristobulus (b. c. 63), the 
resistance of the Jews to the armies of Titus (70 
a. d.), have passed into military history as supreme 
and superb examples of heroic self-sacrifice for religion 
and country. There are few parallels to them. And 



Chapter 51. Weakness and Strength of Judaism 193 

yet, this very race could temporize, and compromise 
with alien worship, and parties among them could be- 
tray the common cause to the common enemy. But 
perhaps this trait is not peculiar to the Hebrews of 
this period. Perhaps many of us would not quail be- 
fore persecution, and yet, in the ordinary run of com- 
mon events, we are very far from being loyal to spir- 
itual ideals. 

Lack of the civic sense, failure to appreciate the 
need of balance and proportion, inconstancy in devo- 
tion to the highest things — these are grave faults; 
they account for many disasters. Still, while we ap- 
ply this ruthless criticism to the Hebrews just before 
they hastened to that overthrow which for nearly two 
thousand years has blotted out their name from the 
roll of nations, let us not forget that in this very pe- 
riod, as Josephus shows us, the sanctity of Jewish fam- 
ily life, the necessity for thorough instruction of the 
young in religion, and the certainty of the Messianic 
hope received an unwonted emphasis. Seldom has 
there been a more beautiful family life, interpene- 
trated with religious ideas and hopes, than that which 
seems to have existed among pious Hebrews in Pales- 
tine during the intervals of peace that followed the 
Maccabean independence down to our era. It was in- 
to this atmosphere that the Saviour was born. The 
creation of this temper and of this attitude toward life 
was a beautiful and worthy preparation for His com- 



194 Old Testament History 



CHAPTER LII. 
REVIEW OF CHAPTERS 4O-5I. 

We fail to grasp the inner and vital significance of 
the history of the Hebrews, recorded in the Old Testa- 
ment, until we construe it in the light of the purpose 
of God to make this nation the medium of His revela- 
tion to the world — a revelation that culminates in the 
person and work of the Redeemer. The call of 
Abraham, with its promise that in him all the families 
of the earth should be blessed (Gen. 12: 1-3), affords 
the clue for the interpretation of this vast historic 
movement. The unique character and mission of Is- 
rael involved the necessity that the nation should pass 
through peculiar experiences. No given generation 
existed only for itself. The dealings of Jehovah with 
it were tempered by the consideration that it must 
pass on the torch of truth, burning still more brightly, 
to its successors. In a real sense Israel became the 
suffering servant of Jehovah, from whose discipline 
every other people received untold benefit. 

At the conclusion of these studies it is pertinent to 
ask : What was the net outcome of all these ex- 
periences? What, as the result of all this suffering 
and trial, did Israel do for the nations? What was 
the service of the seed of Abraham to mankind? 

To begin with, we can hardly fail to see that it was 
given to Israel to attain to a worthy conception of 
God, and to impart that to mankind. The idea that 
men have of God is fundamental in religion, in wor- 
ship, in morals, and it absolutely conditions their out- 
look upon life and upon all its problems. The prohibi- 
tion of the second commandment is not to be limited to 
the fashioning of idols from wood and stone. Men are 
constantly tempted to make gods out of their own imag- 
inations, or out of the devices of their own hearts. To 
such gods they pay a worship as idolatrous as though 



Chapter 52. Review of Chapters 40-51 195 

they bowed down before an image of gold or ivory. 
There is no question that so goes to the foundations 
of rational thought as the question: What is God? 
How are we to conceive Him? The Christian answer 
is larger than the Hebrew, but the Christian answer 
presupposes the Hebrew. The elements of our thought 
of God as supreme, as personal, as righteousness, we 
owe to the divine revelation through the history of 
Israel. 

Still further, it must be plain to those who have 
followed the stages of this historical development that 
we owe to it a unique conception of the evil and guilt 
of sin, or, to put it in another way, an exalted, worthy 
ideal of human life, for the sense of sin is an exact 
measure of one's moral and spiritual ideal. We recall 
at once how it was burned in upon the consciousness 
of the nation that fidelity to the law of righteousness 
was the supreme thing in human life; how violation 
of that law separated the offender from the brother- 
hood of the congregation, and from the fellowship of 
God, and how the penalties of transgression came upon 
the wrong-doer like a swift consuming fire. If some- 
times we are tempted to think that the Hebrews' ideal 
of the perfect life, pleasing to Jehovah, which began 
this sense of sin, was narrow and partial, we should 
bear two things in mind. One is that Israel was under- 
going an exclusive discipline fitting it for its spiritual 
world mission, through its daughter, Christianity. In 
the light of that consideration the hard and narrow 
features of the Jewish ideal of the relation of Hebrews 
to men of other nations become at once explicable and 
necessary. 

We are also to remember that we are to get our 
conception of the Hebrews' thought of the perfect 
life from its ultimate exposition in the great proph- 
ets. We may easily bring home to ourselves the 
surpassing ideal of human life given us through Israel 
in a very personal way. Let any father and mother 
compare the moral ideals of the Old Testament with 



196 Old Testament History 

those of any of the ethnic faiths — the religion of Ham- 
murabi, of Egypt, of Confucius, of Buddha, of Mo- 
hammed — and then ask the simple question : To what 
ideal do I wish my son or daughter to conform ? The 
question answers itself. If the revelation of the Old 
Testament had given us nothing but its sweet, strong, 
reverent, wholesome conception of the ideal of hu- 
man life, it would have performed an inestimable ser- 
vice for the race. And the sense of sin, which is 
such a deep and vital thing in the history of Israel, 
is simply the sense of failure to live up to the ideal. 

Beyond this, we must have been impressed with the 
fact that there runs through this history of Israel the 
hope and promise of the reconciliation between God 
and man. On the one hand we have the lofty Hebrew 
conception of Jehovah; on the other, the noble ideal 
of man which manifests itself in the consciousness of 
sin. But the fact of sin is not irremediable or ulti- 
mate. 

We may not place too much reliance upon our 
interpretations of the vague forecasts of redemption in 
the earliest records, but, as we seek to penetrate to the 
real import of the sacrifices, of providential discipline, 
of the messages of the prophets and of their insuper- 
able optimism, the Old Testament becomes what Jona- 
than Edwards called "the history of redemption." It 
is at this point also that the religion of the Hebrews 
presents a sharp contrast with the ethnic faiths. Its 
movement is always onward. The Golden Age is 
not in the past but in the future; and prophets like 
Amos, Isaiah of Babylon and Jeremiah, never permit 
their analyses of present conditions, or their scath- 
ing rebukes, to divert their attention for long from the 
transcendently blessed future toward which the whole 
historic movement, under the guidance of Jehovah, 
moves. 

In its conception of the character of God, of the 
worth of man, and of the possibility of the restora- 
tion of complete fellowship between them, Israel gave 



Chapter 52. Review of Chapters 40-51 197 

the world a message of unsurpassed depth and pow- 
er; and it was this message which formed the ade- 
quate preparation and basis for the mission of Jesus 
Christ. 



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